DISTRESSED by the workplace bullying she was witnessing, one cleaner on the railways was so concerned she became a union rep.
Nan Zaimaitas is just one of the many women whose involvement in workplace disputes in Scotland have often been overlooked.
Their contributions have now been recognised in two fascinating new collections released on OpenLearn, The Open University’s (OU) free learning website.
One is a general look at the largely hidden past of women’s involvement in Scottish workplace struggles over the last century, while the other specifically looks at women’s role in the railways in Scotland, particularly as trade union activists.
The latter has been put together with the help of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in Scotland and Scottish Union Learning, part of the STUC.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said it was a “collection of powerful personal testimonies”.
“This partnership with The Open University has not only filled gaps in our existing knowledge of the role of women in railway trade unionism but given a number of women members the skills and confidence to pursue other learning opportunities with the OU,” he said. “I hope that this will lead to further collaborations of this kind.”
Angela Bradley, EIS general secretary and chair of the STUC Women’s Committee, also praised the new resources.
“Without women, society as we know it would crumble, yet for far too long, women’s contributions to history have gone unacknowledged,” she said. “Women’s workplace rights are not fringe issues, but rather trade union struggles and without these hard-won fights we would not be where we are today as a movement. Sharing our stories and making our voices heard adds to our collective strength.
“This project, and growing archive, is an important step to set the record straight and for women to take our rightful place in trade union history.”
Gerry Mooney, professor of Scottish society & social welfare at the OU, who initiated and led the projects, said the team had gathered a rich collection which would be of much interest across Scotland.
“Women have always played a role in workplace disputes of different kinds but the role of women in workplace disputes today has reached new levels and that disrupts the idea that women are passive in the unions,” he said.
“What comes across is the essential role of women, not only fighting in the workplace but in terms of protecting services. They know that health, welfare and other public services often relate to them outside the workplace and that combination of being involved as workers and service users is quite potent and very significant.”
Professor Mooney added that one of the reasons for the number of women now heavily involved in workplace disputes was because of the UK Tory Government’s austerity policy which has resulted in severe budget cuts across the public sector, which historically has tended to have a high proportion of women workers.
“We’ve got more and more managers and bosses in the public sector adopting and using private sector forms and methods of management,” he said.
Professor Mooney added: “What comes across in the material is that bosses are trying to extract more and more for less and less, leading to the further exploitation of workers through work intensification while at the same time trying to erode long-held and hard fought for terms and conditions. At the same time there are often fewer workers to undertake the work and meet the needs of users.
“There is a struggle to try and maintain a level of service that is almost impossible in the current conditions and the combination of funding cuts, attacks on conditions of employment and a deterioration and reduction in public services has come together resulting in widespread protest and resistance. Workers are experiencing this not just in the workplace but also as public sector users as well, something that is oft overlooked.
“They see the cuts in social welfare, withdrawal of services and amenities, lengthy waiting lists in the NHS and so on and these have combined to give the impetus to fight against it.”
Gendered assumptions about men and women’s role in society has led to women often being paid much less than men and Professor Mooney said that recent disputes had revealed how ingrained that had been in the public sector.
“Historic inequalities between men and women workers have been allowed to become entrenched. That has now been challenged full on, including by male workers too, and I hope that will continue,” he said.
The new material demonstrates that there are lessons for unions in how the workplace is organised, according to Mooney and the OU team.
He said: “Some of the protests organised by women are very lively and very innovative. There is poetry, song and dance, often quite different from the historic forms of protest that typified unrest and strikes in industry. That richness and diversity of forms of struggle is quite important as well.”
Life as a railway worker: An oral history testimony
I JOINED the railway in 1977 as a cleaner at the Corkerhill depot, then later moved to a new cleaning depot at Bridgeton, in the East End of Glasgow.
In the early 1980s, the Bridgeton depot was shut with the opening of the Yoker Depot in the west of Glasgow. I continued my role as carriage cleaner, which I loved but witnessed a campaign of bullying and harassment by a couple of management inspectors towards the cleaners. I watched grown men crumble, reduced to tears as they were threatened with dismissal and told to repeat chores for no reason.
It got so bad I could not take the injustice anymore and went up to the RMT union offices in Hope Street near Glasgow Central Station and detailed what was going on to the union official who was present.
After I had finished, he said: “Why are you here?” I was exasperated and said, “I just told you.” But his question was very poignant as he was asking why it was only me and not everyone else in the depot coming up to challenge it.
There and then an RMT union rep for the cleaners at the Bridgeton depot was born! The role and its responsibilities take dedication and commitment as you must do your homework, endless hours buried away in a corner of the house, away from family time, in order to be able to best represent your colleagues.
One night while on duty I could hear yelling and screaming in one of the coaches. I entered with a number of my colleagues to see what was going on. There was a young cleaner who was struggling with mental health issues, crying at the hands of two inspectors who were bullying and threatening to sack him.
They then yelled at me to leave or face the sack too. I refused; tempers frayed – by this time we were all involved. Someone tried to calm the cleaner and I left and called control, insisting they come down to sort this out. They arrived 15 minutes later, took statements and the two bosses in question were suspended without pay for a period of time.
It later transpired the chap had been suffering from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, seriously affecting the way he could perform his work, never mind his general health.
By the late 1980s, I was heavily involved with the union, fighting for workers’ rights.
On one occasion the Glasgow office sent me to defend a worker who was due to be sacked. On arrival the man, a long-time member of the union and railway, looked at me, distressed, and said: “I’m due tae be sacked and they send a woman tae defend me.” I calmly said that we could rearrange the meeting and have someone else come to represent him, but he said, “Acht well, yir here now”.
I went in and was able to overturn the boss’s decision and this man is still in work to this day. He was so impressed he shook my hand.
It is good to think that in this role I also helped to change perceptions about women in the workforce – even if it is one person at a time.
The ripple effects are far-reaching.
