The atmosphere described by workers is portrayed through testimonies in which sensations become entangled with one another and do not remain restricted to the five basic senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste). Concentration, attention, strength, balance, discomfort, fear, and other similar corporeal experiences are added to the atmosphere of the factory, and, in a way, reveal the "skin" and the "flesh" of the industrial world.
Dock workers were exposed to many different materials over the course of their everyday activities. In addition, they lifted many heavy loads, because their main duties consisted of loading and unloading such materials and their end products, and their payment depended on the volume of cargo in tons.
The port allows for only one specialization and that is the loading and unloading of ships. Each ship has its own mechanical equipment, the so-called cranes, which are operated by dockworkers. From 1985 to 1996-1997, the merchandise was very diverse: scrap metal, timber, paper, anything you can imagine, the industry was booming back in the day, right? Ores, iron, copper, wood […] We were paid by the ton. A ship carried one thousand tons of sheet metal; are you going to leave them on the ground, load it straight into the truck and send it away, put it aside and retrieve it before the seven-day period for delayed cargo retrieval in a customs area? We would be paid based according to each stage of work.
GIORGOS ROKAS
Manual labour, especially when it involves the operation of machinery of various sizes, requires a very high degree of concentration and attention, which are two very important qualities for all workers. On the work site you must always remain on guard, because “it could come at you from any direction, you had to remain on defense”–like a wresting ring, you must always keep on eye on your surroundings to avoid being hit by machinery or falling materials. Under such conditions, the senses must always remain alert and this can be very tiresome. Mistakes can be fatal, and their cost is often borne by the workers.
IT COULD
COME AT YOU
FROM ANY DIRECTION
Any thoughts beyond those related to the job at hand, any form of procrastination, and emotional outbursts were in many cases prohibited, as was the case of those working at PYRKAL. After returning to work from vacations, those working in dangerous job posts had to stay off work for some time, out of fear that their thoughts might still be lingering on their holidays. All joys and sorrows of the workers had to remain at the gates of the factory.
They taught us to be careful […] Our personal problems should be left outside the gate and our professional problems should stay behind the gate. That’s what our foreman would tell us.
VOULA ANDREADOU
The bodies of workers grew tired, because they carried heavy loads, worked in extreme heat or cold, breathed with difficulty, worked overtime, and–depending on the season–without days off. The bodies of workers grew tired, because many times the work wouldn't stop, not even outside the factory. In many cases, female workers also had to deal with domestic chores, after getting off from the factory.
In other instances, there were people who, after leaving from the factory, also helped their families with farm work. Vacations were not taken for granted–in fact, in earlier times, they didn’t even exist as a concept, practice, or right. In later times, circumstances left no space for vacations.
I worked at the shipyards for 8 years on two-month fixed contracts and, after 8 years, I became permanent. This was the trick they played, so that we wouldn’t be entitled to paid leave. I visited the Social Insurance Institute and told the doctor that I hadn't taken any leave for the past 3 years. He said: “I’ll prescribe you 3 days”, and I open the healthcare booklet, where I had tucked a 5,000-drachmas bill, and I said “Doctor, how about you make it 10 days?” This is how I took one leave in 8 years of service, 8 days of leave: through bribery. There were others with two-month contracts like mine.
THYMIOS ANDREADIS
Fear is a sensation and a feeling that occurs in different ways, depending on the factory, the specialization, and the job role. The disturbing images of work accidents which were shown to us over the course of a typical briefing regarding the risks present in the facilities of PYRKAL aimed at inducing fear in order to ensure compliance and caution during our presence in the facilities.
To us, as researchers, this fear is something that we are required to consider, because we have the luxury of moving solely through safe areas. In the case of workers who, after this presentation, will begin work at PYRKAL for the first time removing explosive materials from the facilities, this fear is unprecedented and all too real. For a former worker at PYRKAL, fear was a sensation with which she lived everyday for many years. For her, "everyday was like going to war".
Fear is a sensation recurring in various testimonies of everyday life in Elefsina, whether light or deep, momentary or permanent, individual or collective. Fear at the thought of a factory accident was an ever-present feeling in the daily lives of those who worked at PYRKAL. In a similar manner, the possibility of an explosion in this factory or the adjacent facilities of Hellenic Petroleum was expressed as a collective fear for the consequences of such an explosion not only for Elefsina, but also for the wider region of the Thriasian Plain.