South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Local History for Tyne & Wear
ralph
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by ralph »

This turned into a very interesting thread. I never worked in the yards, though my brother worked at Brigham and Cowans from being an apprentice in the 1950's until the yard finally closed, with the exception of a couple of years away for National Service, and my grandfather and father also spent years working in the yards so it was part of life at home, and of course there is truth in what Pete says and expanded and put in context by Cairngormer.

I was in a trade union all of my life and while there have been good employers that looked after their people, sadly, it was not something you could rely on and I'm a firm believer that they were neccessary. That having been said, it was sometimes galling to watch union officials doing their very best for people that most people knew were a waste of space, and worse to see them retiring early on medically enhanced pensions, or being awarded compensation for anything from 'hurt feelings' to alleged injuries where doctors found it easier agree to rather than take a stand.

I worked with a man that had been retired from the Fire Brigade with 'repetitive strain' injury brought about by typing reports, and when I parted company with him, he was back trying to get compensation, again out of the fire brigade, for tinitus, caused by wearing earphones in the emergency control room. No back injuries from carrying injured people out of burning buildings with this one. His wife was at the same time suing some unfortunate past employer for some imagined wrong done to her.

These people might be a minority, but they are there and and everyone knows it. Sadly they get away with it far too often.
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by jeff »

My "industrial" experience was in the Construction Industry where there were a few "malingerers", especially when it came to claiming "comp" for injuries etc.
There was one chap who developed dermatitis on his hands and legs through contact with cement and eventually he was called to a Medical Board. At the time his symptoms had receded and so in order to make "the best show" for the Dr. spent some days before his appointment making sure that his symptoms would be in evidence. Unfortunately for him he left it too late and when he presented himself to the Panel his skin was clear- so no compensation. But just a couple of days later, and too late for him, his hands and arms were covered again.

On the question of Unions and working practices I was always a Union member, AUBTW and latterly NALGO/UNISON, although the firm with which I served my apprenticeship was largely non-Union.
My membership of a Union did not go down too well with my dad who was very anti Union for reasons which I never did really understand. He was a carpenter and in his journeyman days worked on a site in the Bristol area. Bristol was always a strong Union area. He was working on a housing site doing second fix- hanging doors- when the Union rep came along and said to him
"How many doors are you hanging in a day George?"
"Nine" he replied
"We only do seven a day on this site" came the reply
But it made no difference to him he just carried on with nine a day.
So maybe that attitude of the Union man turned him against the organisation.

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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by Delilahcat »

My mother's eldest brother broke his back in an accident on the railways in 1933. He was an 'invalid' for the rest of his life. No compensation so his wife had to work as a cleaner then a barmaid to support him and their baby son. No adapted house just two rooms with an outside toilet and water supply. He lingered on for eighteen years never leaving the house cared for by his dedicated wife.
Ralph whenever I hear people mentioning how bad it is that people receive compensation and disability benefits I wonder what it is they want. Do they want to return to the days I have just described? The Trade Unions fought so that people like my Uncle Sam would get a better deal both in terms of compensation and the Welfare State. I would far rather a malingerer got through the net than deserving people missed out. I wonder what will happen when this present Government - who are claiming that dying people are fit to work - continue unchecked aided and abetted by their apologists?
I deal with people claiming compensation for things that have happened to them in the workplace. They list a whole number of reasons which may start with 'severe mobility problems' and finish with something like 'inability to socialise'. You can bet your bottom dollar the newspapers will say 'man awarded £100,000 because he can't go to the pub.'
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by ralph »

Deliliah, I have never complained about people being looked after when they have genuine illness or disability , and I would hate to think that we could ever return to the bad old days. I have however seen not the occasional malingerer slipping through the net, but many abuses over the years, and it made my blood boil when I saw my own trade union officials helping them to do it. They brought discredit on the whole system and soiled the movement as a whole.

Just as I hate it when I see failed executives in the private and public sectors being given massive pay-offs to get rid of them, I despise those of my own class that have ripped off a hard fought for system that was intended to protect workers that had lost the ability to earn their living either through accidental injury or having developed some disabling infirmity.

I think it was said earlier in the thread: "There was never a fall of stone, that he didn't manage to be under." Most of us that have worked for a living know people who were like that and it does not serve any good cause to say that we would rather that people like that 'got away with their malingering than we should return to 'the bad old days'.

You have my blessing (not that you need it :lol: ) to continue fighting for the deserving. I once asked a barrister how he could sleep at night, knowing that he had spent days defending a man he must have known was guilty. He said: "Yes, I believed he was guilty, but unless he told me so, it was my duty to present his case as he told me it was." And that was how some of the trade union officials behaved - no credit to the system and no amount of wriggling and playing with words will convince me differently.
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by Delilahcat »

We are never going to live in a perfect world where there are no cheats and malingerers. Whatever system you have someone will always try to get one over on it ...unless you have no system at all. My worry is that when there are concerted campaigns to present all benefit claimants as shirkers and attacks on workplace compensation which suggest that most are pretending or malingering then it is a softening up process to scrap the lot. When we nod our heads and say yes I remember Bill who pretended to have a bad back or Jen who got a lump sum for breaking a finger nail we are maybe aiding and abetting that process. Of course I have known cheats and malingerers but qualify it by saying the majority of people are honest and deserving.
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by ralph »

I agree with your concluding sentence and would never want a return to the bad old days. I think i detected a strong whiff of those bad old days yesterday, when listening to Jacob Rees Mogg MP speaking in a debate in the house, about housing benefit and the need to exert economic pressure on people receiving housing benefit and who had a room that they did did not use full time, to move to a smaller house. It all sounded so sweet and reasonable as he explained that these days, on average, people move every seven years, and don't have a house for life.

Reasonable until you consider that 'a house' is often also a much loved home that people have occupied for decades. Reasonable until you consider that his Party is peppered with with people who swell with pride when they tell you that their family has occupied their present home for centuries... maybe I'm becoming cyinical as old age approaches, but I'm old enough to remember 'the bad old days' and notwithstanding I sometimes grumble about outright abuse of the system, I would hate to see the clock wound too far back. :(
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by Delilahcat »

Me too Ralph. A house is more than bricks and mortar and for some people the memories mean a lot to them. Rather than take a hard line and demand older people move out of family sized houses the Council built some very nice bungalows at Biddick Hall and offered first refusal to the older people concerned. Quite a few took up the offer and were able to stay on the Estate and their houses became available for families.
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by mr-angry »

Deliah, you're talking completely out of your backeye. I've seen you and your phony friends at first hand claiming disability allowance, just like I've seen the men at the allotments claiming it as well.
You're just a parasite thieving off the real workers of this country.
South Shields, I was born here, and I'll d*e here
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by captain beefheart »

I see you have moved your abusive posts to this forum as you have been stopped in Curlys, lets hope the they get some moderator on here, how about it Ry
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by Mr Smith »

captain beefheart wrote:I see you have moved your abusive posts to this forum as you have been stopped in Curlys, lets hope the they get some moderator on here, how about it Ry
I agree Captain, why don't you ask Ry to make you moderator?
Wise man talk because they have something to say,
fools talk because they have to say something.
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Re: South Shields folk working in the yards Narrow escapes.

Post by martymont »

Cairngormer it was me asking about the Gandara, I was apprentice to if you knew them Geordie Delroy, Jimmy Wade and Eddie Georgeson and on the bottom squad working on the ways Tommy Gray, John Hogg hated working on the Arctic D steel remember 1976 lying on the tank top just under the deck covered in dust sweating as the deck was heating up and getting electric shocks when trying to tack. gaffers where Larry gaffin, Geordie Atkinson and Jimmy West.
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