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VSE056 Betty Gwendoline Metcalfe, British industrial Solvents, Port Talbot
While a pupil at Bridgend Grammar School Betty passed 13 O Levels and stayed to study for A Levels, but decided to leave (1950) and went for an interview in her school uniform to the Carbide Factory, which produced acetylene Gas. She worked in the Laboratory, analysing local limestone etc. She describes the dust, the dangers working with nitric acid, tough girls, technical courses at college, inequality of pay, excellent bonuses; problems with acne; accidents and the nurse; and the subsidised canteen. She left when she was expecting her daughter in 1960. She returned to help close the factory in 1965/6. It had been like a family there.VSW056 Catherine (Kitty) Jones, Hancock's Brewery, Swansea
Kitty left school at 14 (1944) and after working in a laundry she went to work in the order office of Hancock’s brewery (1947 -) Gave her mother her pay packet but then decided to keep it. You could walk in and out of jobs then. Women did the bottling in the brewery. The girls wore canvas aprons and clogs for some jobs. The company had other breweries in Cardiff and Newport – met up for dances. She used to shop on behalf of one man in the office with her. She met her husband there. Turkey gift at Xmas. No union – those who joined – chucked out. Union accepted at last – c.1948/50). Accidents – bad cuts when bottles burst, had to go to hospital. Sacked if caught stealing beer. Bags searched. Lots of pilfering – some drunk in work. Music in mess room and sing songs. Lorry drivers shouting things at girls, but no aggro. Annual trip to London on the special train with the other brewery staff. The men had football and cricket teams and the women a baseball team. Worked there 17-18 years (- c.1964-5).VSE057 Iris Radley, Currans, Cardiff
Iris worked in the Curran’s Factory as a summer holiday job when she was 16 (1956), although her mother was appalled because her father (who had worked in Curran’s during the war) said that factory girls were very common. The factory was making parts for tanks – heavy industry. She was told to wear an overall and a turban. Rhondda girls wore curlers under their turbans. She had to check the straightness of tank tracks (not skilled). Sitting down but physical job. She describes it. Crude jokes. She got her O Level results (through the Western Mail) when she was there. She had to pack bundles of rods and varnish labels. Story of the blind worker and his dog. Shock of working a week in hand. She wore very heavy duty rubber gloves. She was warned of one man who might harass her. She learned a lot there. Later she went on to finish her A Levels and to a career.VSW057 Mair Richards, Milk Marketing Board, Pont Llanio Creamery
Mair left school at 15 (1952) and worked on a relative’s farm for three years. Then she had a job in the laboratory in Pont Llanio and within a year was moved to the office. In the laboratory she took samples of milk. The factory made powdered milk. There was a room there for the workers to play table tennis. Office work was better paid. She prepared the wages. There was a strike in the sixties – a dispute about a driver in the Felin-fach factory. The manager was given a car and a house by the Milk Marketing Board. On her wedding day a milk lorry came down her street and rang the horn all the way. She left when she was pregnant in 1967. Since then she’s done several jobs – caring in an old people’s home was her favourite. She learned to type in the Pont Llanio office. It was a happy place to work.VSE058 Bill Moses, WCB Containers, Stalybridge;Eriez Magnetics, Wilmslow;Switchgear, Pontllan-ffraith
Bill became one of a 100 apprentices in the Switchgear Factory in 1964; he was 16/7. One woman apprentice (before his intake) – one of the first ever for Switchgear. She became a draughtswoman. Details of apprenticeship. Then offered the job of a sales rep.for Eriez Magnetics. His wife was a sewing machinist in Crompton, Sons and Webb (Newport). Moved to Macclesfield, office in Wimslow. Switchgear had 4 factories in s. Wales: Pontllanfraith, Caerphilly, Aberbargod and Trefforest. In Pontllanfraith about 150 women covering heavy copper bars with araldite etc. Earning less than the men. Also as tracers, typists, paint shop – very dirty and greasy work. Women teasing the young lads – older women the worst. Some crude and rough. He returned to Wales as salesman for WCB. Excellent overview of factories where women worked in south-east Wales, e.g. Alexon, Weston’s/ Burton’s Biscuits/ Lovell’s/ Triang etc. ‘I’ve been abused by many of them!’ It was verbal abuse and swearing. Gives an example of crude teasing from Slimma’s St David’s. Notes going to social functions in factories especially Xmas time. Working piecework, less banter. Example of one girl taking all the small bras to sew in Crompton’s. Mentions that workers had sex on night shift in one factory.VSW058 Patricia Prudence White, RSW garment factory, Cwmbran;Lotery's Factory, Newport
Patricia left school at 15 (c.1951) and hoped to go to university, but her brother needed an apprenticeship instead. Describes how her mother was treated unfairly by Redifusion. Factory work had a stigma, but wages good. Lotery’s made uniform tailoring. She did an evening class in dress making and design at the same time. She wrote operas and did crossword puzzles to occupy her mind. Working on the overlocker was ‘mindless’. People there from different backgrounds and abilities. Expert lip reading and no secrets. Rivalry between smokers and non-smokers about productivity. Intricacies of piece-work – a lot to learn. Time and motion strategies. Concise movements made work more efficient. Challenging the manager by singing. Union relationship with management poor. After a time driving a minibus, she was offered a job at RSW. Career details: Lotery’s c.7-8 years (c.1951-8), c. six months in Western Biscuits; returned to Lotery’s (c.1960-4/5) as machinist then trainer. She worked for RSW 1974-78.No transcript of the interview is available