Κεφ. 2 - ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ & ΕΡΓΟΣΤΑΣΙΑ - ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΣΤΟ ΕΡΓΟΣΤΑΣΙΟ - Α

CHAPTER 2

EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

Life in the factory is defined by its daily routine, the activities and relationships developed within its facilities.

The experiences, practices, and interactions between people, materials, machines, and factory space, combined with employer dynamics and the relationships between workers, establish a community, as well as a consciousness within this community.

Industrial consciousness is a multifaceted universe, constituted by its own images, manners, vocabularies, anxieties, fears, conflicts, expectations, and festivities in and out of the factory grounds. Industrial consciousness makes its own rules of representation and creates a collective memory around the factory.

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

The factory holds amazing things… Only those who have worked in one can understand this.
VANGELIS LIGGOS

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

The shifts, working with machines and raw materials, the product, completed or not, and work breaks all take place during a single day at the factory. Such days vary according to the season, gender, the worker's position in the line of production, working conditions, and the type of production.

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

The workers who staffed the first factories faced extreme poverty, worked under extremely harsh conditions, and were often subject to exploitation.

EXCERPT FROM
THE FILM “ELEFSINA”
BY T. PAPAGIANNIDIS

WE GATHERED
IN CROWDS
FROM 7
IN THE
MORNING

This one time I fell (because I didn’t want to be thrown out of the port) I slipped on the plank and fell into the sea. And I wouldn’t let go off the sack, since it would be lost in the sea. Three of them jumped on me and struggled to make me take my hands off the sack and carry me out of the water. And the foreman asked me: “Why the hell didn’t you just drop the sack?” “Would you take me back to work tomorrow if I did?” That’s what it had come to.
MALLIOS ANASTASIOS | INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES (2006)

I was born in Elefsina in 1941 and my first job was at Iris, but with a minor’s identity card! We were coloring the lids. Of course, the work there was very hard, difficult and very, very dirty. They weren’t giving us hazard pay and stuff like that. Just a day’s wage! In addition, I didn’t get a raise, nothing besides the basic pay I was given, until I became 18 years old! The amount of money remained the same for me, maybe because they weren’t giving me social security stamps and paid me their monetary equivalence instead. When I became 18, they gave me social security stamps and from then on I received a better salary than before.
CHATZIILIA ANASTASIA | INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES (2006)

EXCERPT FROM
THE FILM “ELEFSINA”
BY T. PAPAGIANNIDIS

TO GET
PAID,
YOU HAD
TO STAND
IN THE QUEUE

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

During the early stages of industrialization wages weren’t fixed and workers often moved from factory to factory, seeking better working condition and/or higher wages, or due to losing their previous job.

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

I arrived in Elefsina in 1955. I worked at the shell factory for about 3 years. They laid me off and I found a job at the TITAN cement factory. I was dusting off cloth sacks; we were dusters. At some point, I became sick, went to the doctor and they laid me off. I had respiratory problems. Afterwards, I went to Nikolakopoulos. We would sit on the ground and smash balls with a hammer at the coal furnace. I worked there for 6-7 months. They wanted us to work there exclusively and I protested: “What is this, the German occupation all over again? We want to work day-to-day!” “If you won’t work here exclusively, leave!” “I’ll leave!” I went to SAVVAS and then to the other cement factory, CHALYPS, on the other side… After that, because we went on strike; I wasn’t employed again. And I begged and returned to the shell factory. I worked there until 1972, when I received my pension.
MINGOU ELEFTHERIA | INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES (2006)

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

The factory isn’t solely a man’s job. Elefsina was also full of female workers, either born there or immigrants who arrived looking for work. According to the book Industrial Memories, which records valuable testimonials from people who worked at the factories of Elefsina, women were not a minority among workers.

In several factories, such as Iris, the Elaiourgio, and PYRKAL, women played a leading role in the production process. Besides, they don't appear to be a minority in more contemporary testimonies, either. The daily life of female workers in the factory is often the same as that of male workers; in many instances, however, it is set apart by discrimination and exploitation associated with their gender.

I was the first female employee after many years–during my father’s time, who had been involved with the company for a while, there was a woman from the old generation–and I was the first woman to join the factory after about 30 years. Afterwards, there were other girls, pretty ones, too, working with Dimitris Papadopoulos at the offices and the accounting department. Still, it took them very long to move up through the ranks; they were discriminated because of their gender, both in the payrolls and in the specializations.
TSOUTSOURA-PATRINOU SOFIA | INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES (2006)

IRAKLIS MPEKAS

THIS STUFF
WOULDN’T
FLY HERE,
WITH THE
WOMEN

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

Outside the factory walls, female workers also had to take care of the house and their children. The care of children was sometimes delegated to grandmothers, neighbors or the wider social circle. During the first years of their relocation to Elefsina, many female workers had to leave their villages, along with their children, behind. Caring for children was often an impediment for women in their employment or career at the factory.

There were also instances when the great pressure to earn a wage compelled women to leave their children alone at home, even if the latter were still quite young.

This other woman locked them in the house and came to PYRKAL. Five-year old children, not even of school age. I asked her: “Are you really leaving your children alone?” She did, because she didn’t have any place to drop them off. How could she even work? She’d come the next day and I’d think “Thank God, she found them alive”.
VOULA ANDREADOU

SOFIA KOSMIDOU

I DIDN’T
KNEW
WHERE TO
DROP MY
CHILDREN
OFF

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

Other testimonies also mention numerous instances of child labour. In practice, during the initial stages of industrialization, child labour was not an exception, but a rule. There are many stories of children forced to abandon school at a young age in order to work at the factory to support their families.

In modern years, child labour often occurs parallel with education, particularly during holidays, either as an addition to the family income or as a means to earn an independent allowance.

EXCERPT FROM
THE FILM “ELEFSINA”
BY T. PAPAGIANNIDIS

HARD-
WORKING
PEOPLE
WERE
ALWAYS
HUNGRY

EXCERPT FROM
THE FILM “ELEFSINA”
BY T. PAPAGIANNIDIS

GO WORK
WITH YOUR
FATHER
TO BRING
BREAD TO
THE FAMILY

In 1962, I took the exams and jumped straight from elementary to secondary school. I finished the first grade with 17–18 [out of 20], no tutoring, no English, nothing like that. I went to the second grade, 17 [out of 20], I was a fourteen-year-old kid with one goal, one [future] profession: medicine. I tried my best, finished the second grade, 17 and a half [ouf of 20], and I asked my dad: “Should I enroll for the third grade?” [He replied:] “No, son, school won’t be of any use to you, go learn a trade to earn a living”. A quick digression: kids nowadays, boys and girls, are considered family; in our days, male children were tools who supported [the family] through work or a trade.
GIORGOS ROKAS | INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES (2006)

In 1962, I got a job at the Iris box factory, in the painting department, where I was cutting up metal sheets. I was fourteen or fifteen years old at the time. We weren’t allowed to work at that age, but they hired us anyway; we had a healthcare booklet, and they gave us social security stamps. I was a young girl from a poor family. My mother accompanied me to the bus station and picked me up from there. At fourteen years old, we were practically babies. Many women worked there; there were women all around. But the thing is, the money was less than modest, no question about it! Even less than that, but we supported our families! The 100 drachmas we collected back then was support for the family!
EVANGELIA KATSOURI | INDUSTRIAL MEMORIES (2006)

PEOPLE AND FACTORIES - EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE FACTORY

WE GATHEREDIN CROWDSFROM 7IN THE MORNING

TO GET PAID,YOU HADTO STANDIN THE QUEUE

THIS STUFF WOULDN’T FLY HERE, WITH THE WOMEN

I DIDN’TKNEWWHERE TODROP MY CHILDRENOFF

HARD-WORKING PEOPLEWEREALWAYSHUNGRY

GO WORKWITH YOUR FATHER TO BRINGBREAD TOTHE FAMILY

WE GATHERED
IN CROWDS
FROM 7
IN THE
MORNING

TO GET
PAID,
YOU HAD
TO STAND
IN THE QUEUE

THIS STUFF
WOULDN’T
FLY HERE,
WITH THE
WOMEN

I DIDN’T
KNEW
WHERE TO
DROP MY
CHILDREN
OFF

HARD-
WORKING
PEOPLE
WERE
ALWAYS
HUNGRY

GO WORK
WITH YOUR
FATHER
TO BRING
BREAD TO
THE FAMILY