Page 12 - We Worked for General Instruments: Part Two: The Conclusion

ISSUE : Issue 50

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/1/1

No. It was all men. I didn't have to lift anything heavier than 5 pounds. If I need? ed a box of tuners picked up, I just called a man. The man came down and picked them up for me. I wasn't allowed to touch them. If I picked them up and hurt my back, I couldn't get compensation for it. I was not allowed to touch it. We were told, "You have to have a man to do it. It's his job." And if we start doing it, we're go? ing to take his job, anyway, from him. You know, "I don't need him now, that girl can lift those boxes. We can lay this guy off." (That's the company talking to you.) Yeah. Yeah. We'd be caught dead lifting a box, because you'd have 500 people on your back! "What are you trying to do!" (Did men ever try to get jobs on the line?) There were a few. Not many. They ' COMMERCIAL TRANSPORTATION TRAINING & CONSULTING SERVICES INC. C.T.T.C.S. is a locally owned driver training and safety consulting company presently operating in the truck transportation industry. DRIVER TRAINING: TRACTOR TRAILERS TANDEM STRAIGHT TRUCKS SCHOOL BUSES AUTOMOBILES FORK LIFTS SERVICES & SEMINARS: DEFENSIVE DRIVING DANGEROUS GOODS DRIVER EVALUATION All students receive personalized, individual instruction. Our instructors all have a minimum 20 years professional driving experience. P. O. BOX 53, WHITNEY PIER POSTAL STATION SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA B1N 381 PHONE (902) 539-4216 Training & Consultation in all Phases of the Road Transport Industry weren't put there. And they weren't hired. Just plain not hired. Like, I guess they had as many men applications as women. But as far as we were all concerned, it was a woman's world, a woman's job, a woman's factory. And the same thing. (A man) wouldn't go into a grocery store and apply for a cash? ier's job. Now, maybe. But I meant 10 years ago, that was a woman's job. You know, men working a cash register--sissy-- baby. It was the same thing up there, a man sitting on a line or, you know, do something like that was a woman's job. You were laughed out of the chair. (You're sitting there, getting your fin? gers cut up, covered with grease, working with punches and things like that.) Screw? drivers, cutters. (Doing electronic test? ing.) Yeah. (And that's a sissy job?) Be? cause they put women in it. If they'd have put men in it, it would have been a man's job. But they put women in it. (And the decision was the....) The head office. The company's decision, yes.... (When you were working there, were you al? lowed to talk on the line?) Oh, yes. No problem, talking. I mean, you couldn't get out of your seat and--you know. I mean, you could get up and walk over and say, "Meet me at lunchtime," and walk back and sit down. But you couldn't get up and leave your position and walk up the line and sit there for 20 minutes talking. But as long as you were sitting in your seat. Oh God, yes, we carried many a conversa? tion. I mean, we knew everybody's life history! And they knew yours. You had to talk about something.... (In our search for new industry, if Gener? al Instruments came back to Cape Breton tomorrow and set up here, and treated peo? ple the way they treated them then--of course, the wages would be higher, today's standards--do you think we should then be grateful to have them here?) Yes. Yes. With the unemployment here. Yes, I would be the first one there, looking for a job. (Looking for a job.) Yeah. I'd be the first one there. I mean, I worked 4 years OVERLOOKING SYDNEY HARBOUR 400 KINGS ROAD, SYDNEY ??564-4567 (902) i 105 BEAUTIFUL ROO!'S~ALL NEWLY DECORATED NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM * MEETING FACILITIES * COLOUR CABLE TV COMMERCIAL RATES * OFF-SEASON RATES CASTLE GATE LOUNOE Sir Arthur's Fully Licensed Dining Room

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