Terry’s Tales of a Union Man

For the best part of forty years, I was a Trade Union Representative. I was a rep in many different workplaces and have witnessed many hilarious incidents and, unfortunately, some tragic situations too. These memories are all part of my great career as a trade unionist.

Part 1: The Polaroids

It was a very hot and sunny day in the summer of 1976. Swarms of ladybirds covered the whole of the town, turning the ground red, but that’s another story for another day. That day, the Stacatruc (fork lift) drivers in the warehouse refused to offload wagons on the grounds of health and safety.

Pete, who was a good militant shop steward and comrade, came to tell me that the lads wouldn’t offload the wagons as they couldn’t see because of the sun. Bear in mind that if no tins were offloaded, the filling departments would stop and no five litre tins of oil would be produced. The company couldn’t allow that.

So, what was to be done?

We went to see the deputy manager, who was a decent man, but oil rather than blood ran in his veins. 

We demanded that sunglasses be issued in order for the job to start up again. We suggested Polaroid sunglasses, which were not cheap in those days. We came to an agreement that one of the store men would go to town to buy twenty pairs of sunglasses. 

The lads were very happy with their top-of-the-range designer sunglasses. Problem solved – or so I thought. The next day, the lads from the export loading area wanted sunglasses, too. Here we go again!

The export department steward and I sat down with the same manager for what we thought was a formality: We were going to get the glasses, because the Stacatruc drivers had already received them. But he refused to issue sunglasses, on the grounds that the sun was ‘different’ at that end of the factory. I nearly choked and, when I’d picked the hysterically laughing steward from the floor and composed myself, I tried to understand the manager’s reasoning.

He maintained that the lads in the export section were loading in and out of the shade, so sunglasses weren’t warranted.

We debated for four hours on what constituted shade or non-shade and, finally, it was agreed that a Health & Safety standing order would be issued. It was now official that “Sunglasses would be issued to all drivers off loading and loading vehicles above five feet”  Result!

Once the sunglasses debacle was over, the lads from the warehouse came to work in flowery shirts and all sat on their trucks with their shades on during their lunch break. The loading bay was in full view of the manager’s office.

He phoned me, screaming profanities down the phone which I cannot repeat here. So I went again to see him and assured him that lads were wearing their shirts and shades in their own time, but that there would no repeat performance.

I did laugh though and wish now that we’d had mobile phones in those days, as it would have made a great photo.

Those halcyon days!