Carpenter, Tracey

2013 "Carpenter, Tracey", 2013, HistoryTalk Tracey initially worked on a number of clerical jobs after leaving school before becoming a freight guard on the railways in the 1980s. She worked at Temple Mills where she describes the majority of staff as predominantly migrant. She describes h...

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Bibliographic Details
Institution:TUC - Trade Union Congress Library
Language:English
Published: London 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3DA7550C-D475-4B92-9966-B660D49C6E32
http://hdl.handle.net/10796/84F4FAAB-9C72-43AF-AE53-EA1E25714AA5
Description
Summary:2013 "Carpenter, Tracey", 2013, HistoryTalk Tracey initially worked on a number of clerical jobs after leaving school before becoming a freight guard on the railways in the 1980s. She worked at Temple Mills where she describes the majority of staff as predominantly migrant. She describes her daily work checking freight trains before their journies, being the only female freight guard in the Eastern region, the culture of staff rooms, and the kindness of her work mates. She worked shift patterns, often working at night, in dangerous and dirty conditions on freight that was being moved around the world. She describes the solidarity in the workplace. Tracy was a member of the NUR, becoming branch secretary after the branch was almost closed down, it then went on to thrive, with other branches merging. Strikes in 1989 over pay. She became a driver and joined ASLEF, she describes the training, and how she initially became a freight driver before driving passenger trains, and describes working with the public, working as part of a crew, and the change to Driver Only Operations. Changes to stock, stations and lines. She saw the start of privatisation in 1997. She was one of the founding members of ASLEF's Women's Committee. In this clip she describes her experience starting out as the only female guard in the eastern region. Click on the pdf icon to read the entire transcript or click on the mp3 icon to hear a clip of the interview.
Physical Description:Photograph
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