Mary started work at age 14 after leaving school. After working in a cash office in Derry, she emigrated to New York where she worked on a teletype machine and then various restaurants as a waitress. After returning to Belfast she was recruited to work on London Transport. She describes the working week, shift-work patterns and Routemaster buses at the garage and the bus routes she was assigned to for six years. She describes anti- Irish racism in these years. Mary left the buses in the 1960s to bring up children and worked part time for Avon cosmetics and the School Meals Service followed by Rotaprint, she then worked at RAF Stanmore in the 1970s and then joined the Metropolitan Police as a Section House Warden in Wembley.
She was a member of the TGWU, and a trade union member at Rotaprint. She belonged to the CPSA at RAF Stanmore and describes time and motion studies. There was no trade union in the Police Force.
In her clip she describes the 1958 bus strike and the role of Irish, Asian and Caribbean immigrants on the buses.
Click on the pdf icon to read the entire transcript or click on the mp3 icon to hear a clip of the interview.
Title |
Williams, Mary |
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Maker |
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Production Date |
2011 |
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Format |
Photograph
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Copyright |
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Holding Institution |
TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University |
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Related Objects |
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