|
Correspondence
Pg. 1 2
3
Spring 2001
From
JERRY TYLER, our Foreign Correspondent Emeritus Extraordinaire -another item
from his diary of foreign travels. Along with it he sends
$70.00 to cover dues and convention assessments plus $70.00 for the
RUSTY HOOK.
A very welcome contribution, JERRY Thanks
The
diary item follows:
As a retired longshoreman
moseying around to various parts of the world, I soon discovered there is a
worldwide fraternity of working stiffs. We can recognize each other; communicate
with each other, without words.
My social headquarters in Greece
is the taverna Zaxaroplastion in 1, a little village just outside of - and being
swallowed up by - Athens. I have made friends of many of the regular customers
but the ones I have really wanted to meet, the construction workers, have been
elusive.
They are among the elite of Greek
workers. Proud. Not arrogant or abrasive, when I greet them with a "kale
mera" they politely return the greeting and walk on by.
Today,
on my way back from the center of town, I pass by a new high-rise under
construction. I hear someone calling. A guy on the top floor is peering down,
calling for Kostas and dangling a
line over a little jag of dunnage. Kosta is obviously goofing off somewhere.
Without thinking I go over and signal him to lower the line. With a small stick
I work the end of the line under the load, haul it up and bend a timber hitch
around the standing part. Then I signal him to take up the weight. These guys
use a little electric hoist. He tightens up. The sling is not centered. I signal
for some slack, adjust the sling, pull the bight over to the center of the load
so it will tighten up good and give him the go ahead. As the load goes up I hear
him call:
"Efkaristo" and I wave and go on my way.
Comes lunchtime I'm sitting at a
sidewalk table with a cold bottle of FIX beer reading my paper. I feel someone
pause beside me. "Kale mera" I look up. Plaster splattered guy is
standing there with a friendly grin and outstretched hand. We shake and he goes
inside. He has started a parade. Every construction stiff who comes by, stops
with a smile and a handshake.
Obviously the word has been
passed from job site to job site. "You know that old roundheaded American
hangs around Zaxaroplastion? He's O.K.
He
belongs.
"Another
time, in Czechoslovakia, I'm being taken on a tour of the Danube River port of
Bratislavia. We go aboard a barge, which is loading steel re-bar.
Some "suit and tie
characters are holding a confab on deck. The crane operator has a load hanging
over the hatch.
Again without thinking, because
it seems the natural thing to do, I put the heel of my hand on the end of the
load and lean into it. The crane operator works with me, when Calto, the
engineer who is guiding me around, he and everyone else are grinning at me.
"Until you put your hand on that load everyone thought you were some kind
of an official, not actually a longshoreman!" Before we leave I shake hands
with every guy in the gang. My kind of people. We belong.
And in Luxor, Egypt, one morning,
I'm down on the shoreline of the Nile checking the erosion of the bank. It's
getting too close to the foundation of the Chez Farouk. A big motorized steel
barge moves in behind me. A sailor in a ragged galabiah stands on deck holding a
coil of line. No one is around to take in his bowline. I motion to him. He's
surprised, a bit doubtful, he hesitates, and then he throws me the line.
I
pick it up and sign language "where do I tie up?” I follow his
pointing finger to a piece of steel railing sticking up out of the bank, carry
the line over and make a round turn. As the barge moves in I take up the slack.
When she touches and bounces away keep her snubbed, paying out just a bit until
she stops and
comes back. When she settles I
make her fast.
Then comes a warming moment I
will never forget. We look at each other, this Egyptian boatman and this retired
Seattle longshoreman. We grin at each other. No words are necessary we
understand each other. We belong.
Can't see what I'm writing so
hope you can read it.
Check is for HOOK, dues, etc.
If you can use story, feel
free."
JERRY."
Pg. 1 2
3
 Harry
Bridges
Chair in Labor
Studies
Michael Honey,
Professor
----------------------------------------------
Center for labor Studies
Director; Kristina Anderson
Undergraduate Assistant;
Room 101 Smith Hall, University of Washington
Office Hours: Tues. & Wed.
1 - 4 p.m. and by appointment.
Phone: 206.543.7946
|
