File 1 - Interview with Betty Long, former bakery worker and knit machinist

1 digital audio file (duration 12 minutes 36 seconds), 1 Word file

Recording and transcript of Rebekah Russell in conversation with Betty Long on 1 October 2014 at Springburn Alive and Kicking Project. Betty Long lived in Anderston, Glasgow although she was closely associated with Springburn. She worked in Bilisland’s Bakery in Stobcross Street in Anderson where she reveals that she was one of the first women in Scotland to achieve equal pay with her male colleagues in the early 1970s. Later she worked as a knit machine and sewing machine demonstrator.

Time-coded summary

[00:00:00] Introduction.
[00.00.16] Provides brief summary of work and marital life changes during the period 1960-1990.
[00.01.26] Tells of various jobs held during this period from Bilisland’s bakery, school cleaner, knit and sewing machine demonstrator, retirement at 60 and since, then joining of Alive & Kicking. Also tells of remarriage [in 1976] and birth of another child in 1978.
[00.02.49] Describes changes in working conditions after local factory closures, including impact of closure of Caledonian Rail.
[00.03.47] Discusses impact on family of husband losing job in bakery during this period.
[00.04.48] Describes gender inequality and unfair working practices in the bakery during the 1970s and battle with both union and employer for equal rights and equal pay with male co-workers.
[00.06.10] Describes positive attitude to her employment despite long hours.
[00.06.42] Tells of financial hardship and necessity of securing employment to feed family. Talks about sense of loss of community upon closure of local factories and working men’s clubs.
[00.09.17] Describes how family coped upon husband being made redundant and becoming unemployed. Tells of being one of the first women to win equal rights and pay with male co-workers in bakery c.1972, by taking cause to a Union tribunal. Tells how term “men’s machines” was invented by male co-workers and was not a policy of the employer or union. Tells of pride in being a “women’s libber”.

Transcript is incomplete.

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• English

1 digital audio file (mp3), 1 digital text file of transcript (MS Word document)