21-01-2021, 10:58 AM
16344
Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)
I never worked directly for a woman, but worked alongside many of them. I can't think of a one that wasn't as good as the blokes, and in many cases were better at the job.
As I said before, sexism and bigotry were rife throughout the site, 13,500 employees when I started, but thankfully was not the norm.
A woman working in an office in any capacity, admin or engineer, would barely get a comment.
A woman walking through the shop floor could be traced by the catcalls and banging of hard things on other hard things. I heard tell of one well endowed lady who was subjected to this. After she had walked a short distance she stopped, turned to the men making the noise and said in a loud voice, "What's the matter, have you never seen a pair of effing tits before?"
Respect to her.
Over years that sort of thing faded away, partly because of rules and legislation, and partly due to an increasing number of women in all parts of the workplace.
I was a union man. It wasn't a closed shop and I was invited to join. Several of the union members were good enough to tell me it wasn't compulsory and it was entirely up to me.
I did join but gradually become disillusioned with the whole thing, so when someone suggested I would make a good union rep, I threw my name in the hat and got voted in. I wanted to change things from the inside.
I turned round a meeting of all the senior reps where the full time rep and his henchman were calling for an overtime ban. The members I represented didn't want one.
The senior rep said this was a problem and "we" needed to change their minds. I said that, no, I was representing the views of my members, not imposing your ideas on them.
Another rep than said the same thing about his members, and after a debate on ethics, the ban was thrown out.
Like I said, changing things from the inside.
I went up against my boss, his boos, and a very senior HR chappy once because my lot couldn't (wouldn't) cover a particular job at weekends (because by then we didn't get paid for on-site overtime).
Instead we had an agreement and boosted salary to work unpaid overtime, then take the time off later.
The meeting started with the HR chap being very aggressive and "in your face", quoting "the rules" and the agreement.
Then I produced my evidence. The hourly paid chaps and chapesses were asked to work overtime over a week in advance. We only had three chaps from our side who were trained to do the particular job in question. Two had been given two days notice, and the other only one day.
Then I showed him that the department had worked in excess of 700 hours of overtime across all trades, it was increasing day on day, nobody was being given the time off that they had accrued, and it was always the same group of about a dozen people who bore the brunt of this work which was the opposite of what the agreement said.
By the end of the meeting he was sitting back and telling my boss and his boss that they needed to do something about this to make sure everyone got the time off they deserved.
I don't miss any of it now except the insults and banter that was the fuel that kept the department going.