What would we do without humor? Working people get through life with humor. Much of our humor is political without even intending it to be because life is political, or politics is life. The music and literature of specially oppressed minorities is always rich and expressive and humor is always present as life, it’s trials and tribulations is expressed through art, music, poetry and theater; by laughing at ourselves.
I was a blue-collar worker for a public utility. I worked in an urban setting and the corporation yard I worked out of had about 90 people in it, whites blacks, Latinos and Asians---we were a real group of characters like any workplace. We fixed water mains, installed services to homes and businesses and paved streets and such. We knew every street in the area we served just about. We knew how thick the street was and whether it had a layer of concrete or not as that had a major effect on our work. We knew which areas were busy with pedestrian or auto traffic.
One day a crew was sent out to do a job on a notoriously busy street up in Berkeley (CA). The guys took one look at the order and knew they needed flagmen as the street is relatively narrow, heavily trafficked with cars, pedestrians and bicycles,and is a very thick street. I was the heavy equipment operator that was supposed to dig for the job and we all agreed that we would need flagmen to ensure that the area was safe for us; there would be a lot happening there we were sure of that.
So the foremen went in to try and get flagpersons for the job so that our work area would be protected along with the public. This was a tricky one as it would mean sending extra “warm bodies” and as we didn’t have a labor pool anymore it would mean taking them from the meter pool. The bosses didn’t like to do this as the meter measures the water that the customer uses and is important for revenue calculations.
The boss and the foreman went round and round with the foremen explaining the obvious, that this part of College Avenue was very congested and thick and we needed flagpersons. I was one of the Union reps so I recall being in there as well arguing for the same. But the boss was adamant. The conversation went something like this:
Workers: “We need two flagpersons boss, the company is always saying that safety is the number one concern and this job is in a very busy area with lots of traffic.”
Supe: “I hear you guys but we can’t spare the bodies from the meter pool."
Workers: “But boss, you know how the public are, they hardly notice us. Despite the red vests, high warning flags and the coning off of the area, they drive like we don’t exist.”
Supe: “We don’t need flagpersons and I can't spare the men, we can make sure we cone off the job properly.”
Workers: “But boss, you know how they are, they often pay no attention to the damn cones but a human being with a flag can actually stop them from entering the work area, can actually put their hand up and say something to them.”
So the Supervisor in his frustration slipped up. He tried to make the the argument that there’s no difference, cones, people it’s pretty much the same thing, they have the same effect.
Well that set us off. We never got our extra “warm bodies” but we thought we’d show him.
We always had safety meetings on Thursdays. They were always a great laugh for us as we knew that they were really cover-your-ass sessions for the employer. Working for a public utility was definitely a moré humane existence than the private sector but it's still the boss in a competitive society.
The main room was quite large and we used to gather there before start time to chat, have coffee, play Tonk (a card game) or table tennis as we managed to get a table in there; I had great admiration for Sgt Bilko. On Thursdays the boss would come in and we would start the safety meeting.
This Thursday we went to the trucks and got traffic cones and put them in our seats with our bags and lunch pales on the table like usual. We even put a couple hard hats on some of them. Then we all hid and the boss walked in to begin his safety meeting and found himself faced with a room full of obedient and hard working traffic cones (see picture above).
We made the point that there’s not much difference between us and traffic cones so what the heck.
Funnily enough, some time later the crew that did that job were called in to the office and asked to sign something regarding that job that the company had done everything possible to make the area safe. It turned out a bicyclist had ridden through the cones and in to the open ditch and was suing the company. I guess the cones had difficulty moving in to his path to prevent him from doing this. I refused to sign it.
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