save diesel, the generator wasn't kept running after midnight. As a warning, the lights started blinking at 23.30 h. Production focused on company clothing for large companies like Shell (a major employer on Curaçao) and uniforms for police and customs officials and the initial production capacity was 700 overalls, 300 trousers and 400 shirts, with a 45-hour work week. Work was organised by the bundle-progress specialisation system, which the women favoured because (unlike Dutch workers) they preferred not to rotate work. Workforce Because of the former relative lack of electricity, few knew how to work electric machinery, so two qualified men were hired to teach (initially) 10 women. By January 1951, there were 72 employees, 27 of whom experienced. The education had cost 70,000 guilders over that two-year period. Another year later, there were 110 employees. All overhead staff were male and all workers were female, but the former numbered only five and remained the same, while the latter grew in numbers, providing a major source of employment for the women on this small island. Export of the company's production was on average just over 200,000 guilders, which constituted about half the total exports of Bonaire. But productivity was only 30% of that of European workers, due to Bonairians traditionally not being industrially-minded, the climate and resulting lifestyle, and the poverty and resulting malnutrition (worse than on surrounding islands). To combat the latter problem, Schunck introduced factory-paid meals and health care, with additional care at home for the employees’ families by the white-yellow cross, assisted by Pierre Schunck's wife, Gerda Schunck-Cremers. As a result, the mortality rate for young women dropped considerably, as the table shows. Decline of the industry As a result of the high cost of education and health care, and lack of support from the Antillian government, the company had to be liquidated in 1954. But because closing the factory would cause serious unemployment, the Dutch government took over the company, and from 1955 to 1960 it operated under the name Bocofa (Bonaire Confectie Fabriek) N.V. Despite the fact that this company received government support it could not cope either and by 1961 it started operating under yet another name, Cambes Textiles N.V. (the first letters of the six Dutch Antilles), of which all shares, worth 400,000 guilders, were in government hands. By 1975, there were 175 employees and the yearly turnover was over 1 million guilders.