| Description | Track 1 [01:27:49] [Session One: 26th Sept 2013] Joseph Stanton [JS], born 7th December 1932, Marsh Street, Sandfields, Port Talbot. Mentions both parents were Aberavon people. Mentions father lived in Port Talbot with possible birth in England. Mentions his father was a miner and in Army during war. Mentions father was last to go from the Glanafon Mine, Goytre when it closed. Mentions dad died young at 58 years old, few years after starting in the Abbey steel works. [JS] Mentions attended St. Joseph’s junior school before going to secondary school after passing the Eleven-plus exam. Mentions left school at fourteen years and three months to work as a fireman on the railway before national service in Army at eighteen years old. [00:04:25] Mentions started in steel works July 1955 due to good money. Remarks huge jump in salary from fully qualified fireman on railway to labourer in Steel works. Mentions steel works were looking for labourers, starting at 8am until 4:30. Mentions Mr Abrahams in charge of the pool of labourers would allocate a job for the day. Mentions the variety of jobs allocated from tidying to filling in staff vacancies throughout plant. [00:06:22] Mentions got permanent job within six months at the slab yard as a utility man, learning on the job. Mentions jobs in Port Talbot in the 1950s were easy to come by but the steel works offered the most favourable conditions in terms of training and money. Describes the worst aspect of the job was cleaning the wagons. Mentions automation meant move back to the labour pool. Mentions recruited as a crane driver in the cold mill in 1957. Describes learning on the job and mentions wages were fourteen pounds a week as a stand in crane driver with fully qualified permanent crane drivers getting sixteen to twenty pounds a week. Describes the lottery of getting a permanent vacancy on a crane and mentions you would only get a job if someone left (or died) within the bay you were allocated. [00:13:37] Mentions was at the mercy of the seniority system and regards it as the best system at that time but felt unfair that transfer to other sections was not permitted. Mentions got job as a crane driver on the pickle line. Describes the poor environmental conditions working on the pickle line and links this to losing all his teeth. Mentions the boiling sulphuric acid in the tank under his crane, the fumes that came off and only able to cope for short fifteen minutes in these conditions. [00:17:08] Describes worked continental work patterns with each shift being eight-hour duration. Mentions no free time on the pickle line, braked only for lunch eaten in the cabin alongside the line. Mentions vacancy on the annealing bay provided escape after seven years. [00:19:54] Story of how got job as a cold mill spare during an expansion phase at the plant. Comments on different pay for crane drivers doing the same job- with the pickle line being the worst in terms of conditions and pay. Describes conditions on the annealing line and remarks on the cold. Mentions the cold was due to doors open however enjoyed having clean air that was lacking on the pickle line. [00:23:49] Describes career promotions within British steel. Mentions being on the sixty-tonne crane for eight years but would have loved to move into other jobs on the mill. Mentions green book and how movement across cranes and areas was enabled after this.[00:26:50] Mentions minimal supervision within job role and describes role carried out in the annealing (sp) bay. Comments difficult transition adapting to bigger cranes [00:30:38] Story of near miss where a part fell off the crane and nearly hit a slinger. Remarks no come back from incident due to it being the company‘s fault. [00:34:55] Comments cranes received regular maintenance, but the plant would need to be shut down during maintenance. Mentions no protective equipment was available until three years before finishing when hard hats were compulsory. [00:35:41] Describes the biggest changes at the steel works were the wages and air conditioning were introduced in the crane cab. [00:37:52] Mentions health compromised from working in these harsh conditions and gives example of the pickle line causing his gums to go black and losing all his teeth before thirty. Mentions shift work was detrimental for health and relationships. [00:43:00] Describes the talk of changes at the works coming in before he retired and was glad to leave. Reminisces on the camaraderie he left behind. Story of how cooked Christmas dinner in work and played the occasional games of cards. Describes loving the close-knit feel of community grew up in and remarks that much of his family worked in the steel works. Describes what the Sandfields area was like before the new Sandfields estate. [00:49:00] Mentions the community that lived there, and grandparents close by. Comments that seventeen lived in his mum’s house as landlord let two families live in one house due to mum unable to afford rent. Mentions lived there until 1959 when got married. Mentions wife hated it there despite less commute time to work in the bus company offices. [00:52:33] Stories of area lacking in facilities and describes luxury of having a bathroom at fifteen years old, before was a tin bath in front of fire. Mentions had gas in one room and no electricity. Discusses families living in Sandfields, including a black family. Mentions main employers were the collieries and tinworks. Remarks on Burrows Tin works and Mansell tin works across the river as well as Margam steel works which was a big employer. Mentions everyone moved then to the Abbey works. [00:55:31] Mentions move to house in Baglan, Jan 1959 with wife and comments on better views although no streetlights and un-made roads at that time. Mentions transport to work was by bike but in 1962 bought car. [00:59:55] Played football and refereeing football in his recreation time. Describes refereeing football for thirty years and remarks this impacted family life. Mentions playing for Margam United and then refereeing games in the Port Talbot and Afan district as well as the Welsh F.A cup. Mentions socialising with work colleagues was limited to the children’s Christmas party. [1:06:00] Mentions it was accepted that you joined a trade union on starting work. Discusses trade unions. [01:12:25] Describes blacklegging and strikes. Story of 1980’s strike and comments that had to dip into savings every few months to cover living costs whilst on strike and mentions minimum savings after twenty years of work due to this. Comments on Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher [MT]. Comments on 1980 strike [01:19:59] Mentions Miners’ strike and comments on overwhelming bad feeling against [MT] and her treatment of the miners. [01:23:36] Mentions Port Talbot changed after the redundancies, but these redundancies were voluntary. Story of a packer in the steel industry took seven thousand pounds redundancy money but no job to go to in the town. Mentions few changes in working conditions after the Steel Company of Wales became British Steel Corporation. [01:25:54] Mentions workers consensus was happy to be nationalised with an expectation that conditions would improve. Comments British Steel went back into private ownership in 1988. Mentions take over by Dutch company. |