| Description | An interview with Barry MATHEWS, a married man with one son, one daughter, who is a Vehicle mechanic, born in Birmingham and now living in Bromsgrove. Barry MATHEWS’s father was a General labourer, born in Wales and his mother a Waitress/various born in Wales. In the interview, he talks about …
'MS2255/2/028 MATHEWS, Barry Logged by Naomi Fowler
01
.02 I was born in 1946 at Northfield… my parents had moved up to Birmingham during the Depression from South Wales…
.32 Problems of finding work for his father, worked at Austin. (Rover.)
2.03 Earliest memory of the steam engines passing by.
3.08 Memories of school becoming more relaxed.
02
.03 I started school at the age of 5 and I went to Tinkers Farm Infant School… round about 1951, I then went … into the Junior School… it was after the War you must remember… they had the baby boom as it was called… because of this they had to build an additional school…Bellfield Junior School.
1.07 …I stayed there ‘til 1961 when I left school to go to work…
1.15 Discipline problems and memories of the use of the cane.
2.51
Qualifications when I was a child didn't seem to matter too much.
3.31
My expectations on leaving school, I must admit were fairly limited...
03
The day before my 15th birthday in 1961 was the day I left school, so in actual fact I left school at 14…
04
Starting work at Longbridge a few days after leaving school. His father worked there and arranged it for him. Trained as vehicle mechanic. His first job blowing up tyres.
1.38
Every car in those days was road-tested…
1.59 …by the time I was 21… I was a fully fledged mechanic.
2.15 Training, first time he heard adults swearing. People always kept it in the work place, didn’t swear at home.
06
Memories of cold winters and fogs so thick they muffled the sound of traffic.
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Memories of going into city centre as a boy and leaving from Snow Hill station to go on holiday to Wales.
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.03
Memories of houses and life as a child. Little furniture, no carpets, etc.
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Memories of Northfield as a child, more countryside.
1.04 Used to watch trains going by.
10
Traffic and hearing the sound of the hammers from the factory.
1.46 Working in ‘piece-work.’
12
Did road testing, testing black taxis. 30 cabs produced a day.
13
.05 In 1984 I moved jobs … onto the car despatch…
.52 Various memories of fixing cars.
2.43 Good relationship with colleagues and management. Used to be respect for management before because had worked their way up from the shop floor. ‘There was nothing they didn’t know about the job.’
3.56 Discipline stories, men could be suspended for fairly minor acts.
4.44 Story about holes cut in the toilet doors so they could check you weren’t smoking or time wasting.
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.15
That's the one fond memory I have of Longbridge, the tea breaks… generally speaking you sat alongside the bench that you worked at… in later years, they designated special rest areas, but it never had the same cosy feel as sitting alongside your own bench…
1.07 Memories of fellow workers.
15
Grading structure. Grade 5 to 1, the most skilled.
17
Acceptance of the grading structure. In the 90’s then changed the structure to A and B.
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Trade Unions.
.38 …and then the 70’s came along and that seemed to be one whole decade full of strikes.
.52 Being laid off during the power crisis and the three day working week.
20
Going back to the bad old days as people remember Longbridge in the 70’s… people have got this notion that when there was strike at Longbridge that the whole factory ground to a halt and nothing could be further from the truth… the rest of the factory wouldn’t be involved in it at all…
1.01 Rarely involved in strikes.
1.40 Changes in management, who don’t really know much about the job.
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.03 Memories of the launch of the Metro car.
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.59 Job security, people in fear of their jobs.
2.04 …I think probably the ‘80’s were the golden years…you thought at last that we’d turned the corner, you were going places… this is it, we’re going to hit the big time…then along came the 90’s and the take over by BMW… back to the bad old days… job insecurity, morale at an all time low…people don’t feel secure any more…
3.16 The Japanese did a lot of good, but nothing much changed when BMW took over.
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.05 Benefits of having worked at Rover, chance to advance your education, language learning, GCSE’s etc.
1.02 Financing of these courses.
2.07 Passed his GSE French, NVQ French, going to do AS French.
24, 25
Why he wanted to learn French, because of holidays in France. Also did GCSE in English and Maths.
1.12 What his work colleagues thought. Not that many take advantage of the courses.
26
.10
I married in 1971…we bought a semi-detatched house straight away… we had our first child… that was in 1979 and three years later we had a son, 1982…
1.40 It was common for generations to work at Longbridge.
27
.02 Their first house in Rubery, then moved to Bromsgrove.
2.54 Transport was much better then.
3.42 Destruction of the city centre, monstrosities put in their place.
29
Social life in the 1960’s, going to the cinema, dancing.
30
Used to go everywhere by bus, then bought a motor bike when he was 18.
.55 …and then in 1966 on the 1st January I had my first date with my future wife and no way was she going on an oily old motor bike, she decided she wanted a car… I bought my first car in 1967 which was an Austin A30…
1.39 Memories of the car.
2.48 Memories of various cars.
31
Community spirit in Rubery.
32
.24 Working with people from different races or cultures. Attempts to introduce non-white workers onto the production line rejected by the work force.
33
Not particularly religious. Memory of strict grandparents.
2.22 Has left his children to decide for themselves.
2.57 His wife’s working history.
35
Taking Voluntary redundancy, plans to continue studying.
36
Proudest moment of his life was going in an aeroplane to Ireland when he was a child, the first people he knew to fly.
BARRY MATTHEWS (continued)
37
In 1962 I was 15 years old…at the Austin….Anecdote about misunderstanding at work.
2.07 Invited to go on road test with work colleague.
2.44 Relationship with management at Longbridge.
3.56 Reflecting back on my time at Longbridge….general comments on colleagues.
38
Comments on the notion that there was a job for life when he started out.
39
If I was a youngster I’d be terrified thinking , have I got a job for more than 7 years and I think it’s a sad reflection on society today that we have no job security….I think in hindsight now it seems rather farcical….we were almost closing a few months back….
40
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Style of management and how it has changed at Longbridge.
1.26 Has continued studying after leaving Rover. Signed up for a variety of courses including computing…
3.48 Thinks his pension is adequate. |