Welcome to a world where mullets are cool and women don’t do ‘men’s’ work. I know what you must be thinking, but no, I haven’t taken a time machine back to the 80’s. I found a factory job!
This summer has been interesting. Despite endless cover letters and tailored resumes I failed to find an actual co-op placement so after nearly a month of post exam job searching I shifted my parameters of finding a job to finding a job. Any job, the kind of thing where you exchange your physical time and labour for money. In a small Ontario town like mine, jobs are hard to come by. Factories are closing left, right and center and old folk’s homes are looking for much more permanent employees. Tim Horton’s of course was an option, but inevitably I decided that the cost of free donuts on my body would without a doubt outweigh any monetary gain.
Eventually I applied for a job at a factory as a labourer. I started four days later, no interview required. Being a blue collar worker is a new experience for me. Work has always been synonymous with reading and thinking. Summer jobs in high school involved me leading tours as a historical interpreter, then filling my down hours with research and occasionally some sweeping. Co-op jobs have always had me mainly behind a desk. Now all my employer asks is that I put my brain in sleep mode, keep an eye on product quality and move things from point A (the end of the machinery producing the product) to point B (the pallet which is the beginning of its shipping journey).
Blue collar workers are the lifeblood of our country. They are the ones who drive the machinery to build roads, wield the hammers to build houses, tend to the factories that are turning out all those material things we need for our day to day lives, like cars and medication. A blue collar worker is someone who makes a living performing manual labour. The name ‘blue collar’ stems from the affinity towards blue as a colour for work clothes. Navy blue continues to be the predominant colour for work pants as it doesn’t show stains very easily. Back in the formative industrial revolution days, a blue collar worker was one of many. The largely unskilled masses usually came from farms to cities in search of better lives. (This causes a decreased respect for subsistence farming which used to be an accepted livelihood.) Relative to the endless supply of labourers it was the white collared workers, educated people like engineers, lawyers and scientists who were in short supply. Your family needed money just to help you make it through elementary school, much less further education. As a result these educated types were highly prized, paid well and they could afford a nice white shirt despite the fact that white shows dirt right away.
Now factories have largely eliminated people in favour of machinery and education has become much more affordable, shifting the pay scales. It used to be that a higher education guaranteed a higher salary which is no longer the case. Blue collar workers have become much more highly trained, and skilled trades are becoming increasingly valued within society. However it is still an educated person’s world. For my coworkers, many of whom have been performing the same tasks day in and day out for the last several decades, education was a thankless chore. They had other priorities. Perhaps they just experience life differently.
Like many others in my area, the factory (let’s call it factory X) where I’m working is closing soon. In this case the doors are officially being shut for the last time at some point in 2015 but there are whispers of substantial layoffs come September. For many of my fellow workers this means contemplation of future jobs working at the grocery store, or maybe a Tim Hortons. After 20 some odd years they are being let go. Released into a world where a simple high school diploma gets one nowhere.
In the mean time I have been exposed to a micro culture that I never expected. Everyone is very nice. They talk and joke and tease constantly. However it all feels kind of dated (and I don’t just mean the mullets, what hairdressers give people mullets these days anyways?) Most people come in with a High School diploma, after which they rise in the company receiving additional training based on merit. However, the women never seem to get beyond the typical ‘girl’ job of packing and inspecting quality for the product. It is the men who fix the machines and set the production line up when new orders are being processed. The women simply aren’t being trained in these jobs. At this point, I am still very new and so I cannot pass judgement on what goes on in factories. I have a very tiny view of a very large part of our economy.
I am finding that there is something to be said for the work that doesn’t ask you to think too much. Although as a female engineering student I find myself resenting this gender gap, it makes me appreciate how far we have come as a society. My purpose in life is no longer to marry and have children. I can vote, I can work to support myself, I can have an opinion and dress how I want to. In many ways, men have been increasingly marginalized from this culture that gives so much support to the young educated woman. In the factory the men look out for the ‘girls’. They have expertise and get to argue loudly about it. The factory allows them to be their own self made person like a job in the service industry never would. However, with factories closing, much of the training from one job won’t transfer over to another one. Not only are we losing jobs but we’re losing a way of life, and for many they are also losing their pride.
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