We are U.S. and International blue collar sisters. Together we make herstory by letting our voices shout out the rights and the wrongs of job sites, management and coworkers. Making positive change happen through the strength of our collective Work Pieces. This worker writer handbook is for you! Your PEN is your POWER TOOL. Write on!

Tradeswomen Who Write

We own the bodies we live and we work in.

We build the kitchens they’ve told us to stay in.

We make, run, repair the machines that

Created the fridges and stoves in those kitchens.

We even constructed the buildings that house

Those machines!

We are plumbers and steel, carpenters, rail,

Truckers, sheet metal, electrical sisters.

No skill and/or craft is beyond comprehension.

And so is the fact that we are the women

Who write our own working dimensions!

© Sue Doro, Oakland CA 2019

Blue Jean Pocket Writers Workshops are produced by Pride and a Paycheck e-mag www.prideandapaycheck.com.

This Blue Jean Pocket Writers Handbook was developed by Sue Doro, Editor of the magazine. The workshop which accompanies this handbook has been presented at Tradeswomen conferences since 2005. Reproduction of the

handbook or any part of, in any form, for profit is not permitted. However permission to copy for personal use is granted.

Things to Write About!

1. My Earliest Childhood Fantasies About What I Would Do For A Living And How They

Compare To What I Do Now

2. The First Time I Thought About Being A Blue Collar Worker

3. Why I Chose Blue Over White Collar Work OR…Why It Chose Me!

4. The Roadblocks And How I Overcame Them

5. My First Day In Training Or On The Job

6. The Best Co-Worker

7. The Worst Co-Worker

8. The Best Boss

9. The Worst Boss

10. Someone Who Helped Me

11. What I Think Goes Through The Mind Of Young Girls When They See A Tradeswoman

12. What Keeps Me Going On The Hard Days

13. The Various Types Of Accomplishments I Feel

14. Write Something That Would Help To Convince A Woman To Consider Becoming A

Tradeswoman

16. The Impact Of My Job On Other People In My Life

17. What I Think About When I Do A Dangerous Part Of My Job

18. How My Physical And Mental Strength Has Been Changed By My Job

19. What It Feels Like To Be The One Of A Kind On The Job

20. How Getting Older Has Affected My Work Life

21. What My Co-Workers Think Of Me

22. I Received Support From Some When I First Started But…

23. How I've Been Harassed By Some Co-Workers And What I Did About It

24. What I Think About My Work Clothes And Tools

25. The Funniest Thing That Has Happened To Me

26. What I Think About My Future

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27. How Being A Tradeswoman Has Changed My Life

28. What I Hate And Like The Most About My Job

29. My Dream For The Women That Will Follow Me In The Trades

30. How Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Sexism And Other Forms Of Prejudice and

Discrimination Have Had An Impact On My Working Life In The Trades

31. Why There Aren't More Women In The Trades And What We Can Do About It

32. What Being In A Union Means To Me

33. If I Were The Boss

34. Things Of Beauty I See In My Working Day

35. How I've Learned To Be Better At My Trade

36. Laid Off

FIGHT - BACK - SHINE THE LIGHT ON – SEXUAL HARASSMENT

-----Some of the ways you can write about sexual harassment-----

It happened to me

I saw it happen to tradeswoman

I heard about it happening to tradeswoman

This is what happened

I felt ____________________________________

It felt ____________________________________

This is what I did about it

I couldn’t do anything about it because

I kept on working

I told

I couldn’t tell anyone because

I let it go because I didn’t want to lose my job

I let it go because the guy said he was sorry

I let it go because I was afraid the guy would do something worse to me if I complained

I let it go because it was just a “little” thing

I let it go because I don’t have time to deal with it

I didn’t let it go

YOUR OWN WAY OF WRITING ABOUT IT……………………..

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Submit your work poetry, short stories journal or blog excerpts for consideration for publishing

in Pride and a Paycheck E-magazine to Sue Doro, Editor, 484 Lake Park Ave. #315

Oakland CA 94610 or email tradesis@aol.com Check out the FREE magazine online:

www.prideandapaycheck.com

Joanna Perry-Kujala, Concord CA Electrician, IBEW Local 302 “My mom is Japanese and she taught me to write Haiku poetry. “

Three lines. Five beats in the first. Seven in the second. Five in the third. This Haiku is about a day at work when I got into trouble for so-called ‘sexual harassment’. An argument with a GUY led me to calling him a name and all the things HE had said to ME prior to this…were forgotten! The REASON management gave: “It is much worse for a man to be called a BITCH by a woman, than the other way around.”

Haiku

Jackass of all trades Intimidated by me No real knowledge

© By Joanna Perry-Kujala

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Okay. Here you are at home. Writing in your journal. Something happened at work today. You want to write about it. You write short sentences. Phrases. Words. Shortened versions of words like the kind you use to text message (if you do that.) OR you’re the kind of person who writes in full sweeping sentences like a calculated hammer’s swing. No abbreviations for YOU. You want to go back to this in two years and REALLY know what you meant to say. Or you’ve already written notes at work in your blue jean pocket note book and you’re going to add to what you’re written because now you finally have TIME. Or you can’t wait to get on your computer and pour out all the good stuff and crap stuff that happened in one 8 hour work day! Seeing which kind comes out ahead that day! No matter which kind you are (at the moment!)… this page holds suggestions on how to turn your journal entries into poetry. Go for it! SAMPLE JOURNAL ENTRY:

“Today I got to work late at 7:30 because of the heavy traffic on the bridge. Turns out that everyone else from Oakland was late too! So the foreman let it go. Then I found out that the ladder I was going to use had a major crack on the 5th step that wasn’t easy to see until it was moved. The foreman discovered it right after the 7 am whistle. I would’ve just grabbed it and jumped on the work because of being late. Turns out the bridge traffic probably saved me from a nasty fall!”

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Haiku

Bad traffic on bridge Made me late but saved my back. Ladder rung was cracked.

THINGS HAPPEN

Things happen that you have no control over

Like traffic Things happen that you wouldn’t think of

Like broken ladders Things happen that turn bad into good

Like being late stopped an accident

Things happen

I AM WHAT I DO. I DO WHAT I AM. I STAND TRUE TO MY TRADE. I WON’T BACK DOWN. I WON’T TURN AROUND.

© By Laura Lee Hughes, Laborer, Coos Bay OR

I grew up in the ‘50’s; very fortunate to have been born in Montana and raised by a cowboy and a musician. We lived in the country and I rode a horse before I could walk. Daddy always told me the world didn’t owe me a living and I had no rich relation. It was the best thing he ever did for my work ethic. Of course, the ‘50’s and ‘60’s didn’t recognize tough and independent women, so I had some difficult years. My self-esteem was in the tank. I was lucky to have some close men in my life and of course my mother urging me to join the laborers. Telling me I could do the work. Being raised in the country, I was used to hard work. I wanted the pension and insurance. So I went to the hall and put my name on the “C” list. I was called out by the dispatcher to run an air chisel in the hydro-cracking unit. When I arrived on the job, the foreman was mad that the hall had sent me. He wanted to put me in the shack cleaning up. I told him I wasn’t going to and if he did he should cut me a check right then and there. That was the beginning of my education and struggle to learn all the tools of my trade and face the challenges that happened daily. I could tell you a million stories. I’ve written most of them down so I wouldn’t forget as time marches on. I am what I do. I do what I am. I stand true to my trade. I won’t back down. I won’t turn around. (From the Blue Jean Pocket Writers workshop at the 2012 Women Building California and the Nation conference.)

(TWO MORE BLUE JEAN POCKET WRITERS FROM THE 2012 WOMEN BUILDING CA AND THE NATION

CONFERENCE!)

I CAN DO IT! © Katie Jo Maier, Carpenter/Drywall Finisher, IUPAT Dis. Council 6, Willoughby Ohio

When I first entered the industry I had a foreman tell me I was too short and my hands weren’t large enough to manipulate a drywall knife. Every day he would check in on me and critique my work. If he found me doing something wrong he would take the time to correct me BUT all the while saying I would never make. I would cry every day that first month from all his discouragement. I wouldn’t let anyone see me cry though. Three years later I graduated my apprenticeship as the first female drywall finisher to be awarded “Apprentice of the Year” and my name is forever engraved on a plaque at the IUPAT District Council 6 Hall (International Union of Painters and Allied Trades). This plaque to me represents that hard work and perseverance can overcome all obstacles. I am currently in my second apprenticeship, now as a carpenter and I plan to continue my “I Can Do It” attitude!

…..THE FIRST TIME I THOUGHT ABOUT BECOMING A TRADESWOMAN….. © By Claudia Hernandez, Operating Engineer Apprentice, Ontario California

I was working as a tool crib attendant but being used as clerical staff. I was offered an opportunity to either become an Apprentice Engineer or to become a Project Manager (which meant more desk time). I sat down and made a Pro and Con list and was leaning towards the Apprenticeship. There were two events that made me realize that Engineering was right for me.

The first was a member of management who “kindly” explained to me that it was a “man’s” job and I was better off at the desk. The second was being able to troubleshoot my own refrigerator and then replace the motor myself!

I love my job and this is what I was meant to do! 6

Say Something

Say what’s on your mind. Just say it. Say something. Say what you’re about. Say what you feel. Say what you don’t want. Say how the sanitation dispenser’s Not working…. For the last five years… And I started my cycle today. Say it out loud. Live out loud. Live out the words from your heart. Out in your words. Say it.

© By Raequel (Papillon) Smith, San Pablo CA City of San Francisco Laborer/Trucker Laborers Union Local 261

A Second…by Chantel Lewis

I knew I was wrong… “It will only take a second”, I thought. “ I don’t need to go through all of these safety steps for the last one!”

I had put up at least 80 light fixtures already and now I was in the last stairwell on the mezzanine,

with a extension ladder tht had to be leaned over a balcony in order to reach the last light.

So I didn’t do my normal safety procedures that I made for myself. (I could kick my own ass!)

The ladder was too tall for it be leaning over a balcony but if I had tried it all the way I had before, I would have made it safe. Thank goodness, the ladder did not tip over and go over the railing. I would have been

severely injured. Instead, it just slid back down to the floor with me on it. But not without cutting open my hand through my glove!

The lesson…don’t take the shortcuts!

I have a constant reminder!

© 2012 Chantel Lewis, Electrician, IBEW Local 6, No. CA & Sierra NV Mts

5 a.m.….I’m Ready to

Work

Foreman walks into the shop “Hey Trixie, get me a cup of tea and breakout your knee pads.” Everyday for a year. 5 a.m..…I’m ready to work I’m still here Foreman walks into the shop “Lisa. Lisa…go show the new guys What to do.” I put up with you but, You learned to respect me. I’m not Trixie. I’m Lisa. © 2015 Lisa Hanson, Los Angeles, Painters Local 1036

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Pride and a Paycheck. Free Tradeswomen internet publication. Poetry in every issue. Email submissions to: tradesis@aol.com. Sign up for email copies www.prideandapaycheck.com Poetry, stories, articles, art and announcements by and for tradeswomen!

Expanded monthly issues now.

Working Words…Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams. Edited and introduced by M.L. Liebler. Forward by Ben Hamper. Anthology includes Michael Moore, Diane di Prima, Woody Guthrie and many others (including Sue Doro).

NEW>>>Workers’ Compensation- Poems of Labor and Working Life by Jannie M. Dresser. Sugartown Publishing. www.sugartownpublishing.com

NEW>>>Journeywoman---Swinging a Hammer in a Man’s World By Canadian poet and carpenter Kate Braid. www.caitlin-press.com

NEW>>>Fighting the Giant. From the Railyards of Tennessee all the way to the Supreme Court! Written by the rail sister who lived it and won a victory for all working women! Sheila White. www.RobertsonPublishing.com

NEW>>>The Fisher Queen. A Deckhand’s Tales of the British Columbia coast by Sylvia Taylor. www.heritagehouse.ca

NEW>>>Unfinished Stories. The Narrative Photography of Hansel Mieth and Marion Palfi by Janet Zandy. www.ritpress.rit.edu

NEW>>>The Red Wall: A Woman in the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) by Jane Hall www.ghps.com

The Lens and the Pen: Photographs and Poems by Milton Rogovin. www.palisadepress.com

The Heat: Steelworker Lives and Legends. Anthology. (A little hard to find but worth the hunt) Try Amazon. This was published in 2001.

Swimming in Clear Water; Eddy Johnson's American Dream; The Man Who Never Comes Back by William O. Boggs, working class writer and educator.

Work is Love Made Visible by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, working class writer.

Mr. Jefferson’s Piano and Other Central Harlem Stories by Betty Wilson, Retired Property Manager for New York city-owned buildings.

Covering Rough Ground, Rough Ground Revisited, Turning Left Toward the Ladies, poetry by Kate Braid, (Canadian Carpenter/Teacher/Writer) In Fine Form, 2nd edition Contemporary look at Canadian Form Poetry, Journeywoman, Swinging a Hammer in a Man’s World.

It's a Good Thing I'm Not Macho and Pioneering, poetry books by Susan Eisenberg (Electrician/Artist/Educator/Writer). Also: We'll Call You If We Need You, by Susan Eisenberg, ILR Imprint. http://susaneisenberg.com

Hard Hatted Women, edited by Molly Martin. (And for back issues of Tradeswomen Magazines (Edited by Molly) go to www.tradeswomeninc.org on the internet.

Sugar String; Heart Home and Hard Hats; and Blue Collar Goodbyes by Sue Doro (retired Machinist), Editor Pride and a Paycheck. Books available from the author (tradesis@aol.com)

My River Chronicles by Jessica DuLong. New York Hudson River’s first female fireboat engineer tells her story.

Sisters In The Brotherhoods…Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City by Jane LaTour, Palgrave Publisher. Contact www.janelatour.com for copies.

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Steady As She Goes, Women’s Adventures at Sea Edited by Barbara Sjoholm, Seal Press

On the Rails; Railroad Voices; and Railroad Noir by Linda Niemann, retired Southern Pacific railroad worker.

Live Wire by Francine Moccio, New York City Educator and consultant.

If I Had a Hammer, Women's Work, anthology edited by Sandra Martz.

Paperwork, anthology, edited by Tom Wayman, (Canadian Blue-collar worker/Teacher/Writer), Harbour Publishing.

The Working class mysteries by Tim Sheard. GREAT!!! Go to www.timsheard.com to order.

Going For Coffee, Poetry on the Job, anthology, edited by Tom Wayman, Harbour Publishing.

Working Hard for the Money, anthology, edited by Mary Weems and Larry Smith, Bottom Dog Press.

Getting By… Stories of Working Lives, anthology, edited by David Shevin and Larry Smith, Bottom Dog Press.

Break Time The Carpenter Poets of Jamaica Plain www.carpenterpoets.org

Punching Out; Digger's Blues; Letters to America, (Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry on Race); Show and Tell; Birth Marks. Poetry books and worker writer anthologies by Jim Daniels (Factory Worker/Teacher/Writer) www.boaeditions.org

Milldust and Roses Memoirs; Beyond Rust, Bottom Dog Press. Poetry books by Larry Smith, (Steel Worker/Teacher/Writer)

Blue Collar Review, Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature, Partisan Press, www.partisanpress.org Accepts blue-collar and working class poems, short stories, etc. for consideration to be published.

WORKER-WRITER ANALYSIS

Hands, Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work, Edited by Janet Zandy, Working Class Educator. Rutgers University Press.

Inside Job, Essays on the New Work Writing, Tom Wayman. Harbour Publishing.

Worker Writers by Meridel Le Sueur. (The “Mother” of worker writing wrote this in 1939!) VERY IMPORTANT BOOK….Get it through West End Press. www.westendpress.org

About Meridel Le Sueur:

Meridel Le Sueur was born in the Midwest in 1900. She joined the struggle for social change through writing and political actions. Her stories, poems and novels told about the breadlines of the Great Depression and the poor and working people of her era as well as the late 20th century. She died in November, 1996 and left an array of stirring, passionate working class literature for all to read and share. She also authored the first worker writer “how to” manual with easy to understand steps in writing our stories. Worker Writers by Meridel Le Sueur. First published in 1939 as part of the Minnesota Works Progress Administration (WPA). Some language is “dated” in today’s world, but her message of defining worker writing as literature written by workers themselves… is definitely NOW, and definitely NEEDED NOW, especially with the attacks on worker rights currently trying to stamp out our collective bargaining victories in this country. Meridel taught us that workers didn’t have to attend higher education in order to express themselves and that we are the ones that should be writing our own work life truths. Sue Doro, the Editor of Pride and a Paycheck and author of this manual, is proud to have been her friend since meeting in the late ‘70’s in Wisconsin. Meridel’s legacy of encouraging those who do the work…to write about their work…has been the inspiration for these Blue Jean Pocket Writers’ workshops as well as for Pride and a Paycheck itself. More about her books, life and work, type Meridel Le Sueur in any search engine.

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Construction of a Work Piece…

Worker Writers write the job. They develop blueprints. Call them IDEAS. Gather tools. Call them WORDS. The finished product could be as small as a shed Or tall as a skyscraper. Name it poem, story, journal, rap, Haiku or verse. Rhyme or fly it free. It’s the Worker Writer’s to decide. Turn six small rooms into one large loft. Follow the plan or scrap it. Make it immediate as a ladder tipping over…NOW Or YESTERDAY as the bicycle repaired at age eleven. Hide it. Share it. Post it on a wall. Memorize or store it in a blue jean pocket. Punctuate or never mind. Write to encourage. Write to complain. Write how work affects the brain Outside of work. Talk of bosses. Co-workers. Good. Bad. Or in-between. Write about your victories. Even your mistakes. Be fearless with your honesty. Let emotions flee the place they hide while you’re at work. Wear them comfortably like soft worn denim shirts. Joyous at conclusion. Proud that you’ve expressed both heart and hard hat. Worker Writers. Cheer. As these words you’ve constructed Into narrative and poem Unite with like minds to become Tradition, Herstory and home. © Sue Doro, 2019

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ORGULLOSA DE SER UNA MAJER DE OFICIO

PROUD TO BE A BLUE COLLAR WOMAN

This Blue Jean Pocket Writers handbook is dedicated to Madeline Mixer, Berkeley California. In

1998 Madeline and Sue Doro co-founded Pride and a Paycheck which began as a newsletter and

developed into an international e-magazine through its website: www.prideandapaycheck.com

Madeline Mixer – tradeswomn musings Obituary and photos from Molly Martin….. mollymartin.blog/2018/06/03/madeline-mixer

“Advocate for Tradeswomen My dear friend Madeline Mixer has died. As the director of the Women’s Bureau District IX of

the U.S. Department of Labor, and long after her retirement, Madeline was a friend to tradeswomen and women who sought

jobs in nontraditional blue-collar work. Madeline was an avowed feminist and for a time during…”

For Madeline Mixer (1928 – 2018)

When giants die They leave a space for us to fill

An ancient redwood lying on the forest floor Welcomes new growth at will

Sprouts become other redwoods Roots intertwine to support each sister

The mother smiles in sunshine and in fog She lives inside us

All

© Sue Doro, Oakland CA 2018

Madeline Mixer oral history by Labor Archives and Research Center

https://archive.org/details/csfst_000014 (20 half hour segments)

Also the http://tradeswomenarchives.com/ in Long Beach CA is proud to be entrusted with some of Madeline’s

papers from her years at the Women’s Bureau. Contact Pat Williams to find out more info. Patwilliams4@aol.com

California State University Dominguez Hills is pleased to invite you to contribute virtual and material artifacts of your experiences to help us build as comprehensive a record of primary materials on women in non-traditional jobs as possible. By non-traditional, we refer to the experiences of women in blue-collar jobs such as construction trades, factory, building,

and refinery maintenance, transportation, longshore workers, fisherwomen, women in military trades and related fields. Our Online Tradeswomen Archives

We invite you to help us build an online site by uploading visual images and documents to preserve a history of local, national, and international involvement in breaking barriers into blue-collar non-traditional fields. These include photos of yourself, your organizations, your unions, your workplaces, your certificates and diplomas, newsletters, fliers, conference

programs, your diaries and journals, films, etc that provide a record of your individual and collective efforts in this field. Women have been working in “non-traditional” blue-collar work in the US for at least a hundred years, during times

of crisis and wars. Since the 1970’s, more opportunities have opened up and we are creating a central place for documenting these experiences and linking to other collections. We also want to feature the experiences of women outside of the US, as broadly as possible. We invite you to upload your materials in as high a resolution as possible, and to respond to the online forms to help users identify and analyze the sources you provide. We are hoping to use the

most advanced and accessible web technology to make this a deeply informative and enjoyable collection. Tradeswomen Archives

Archives and Special Collections University Library, ERC G-141

California State University, Dominguez Hills General questions/comments - vprice@csudh.edu, Questions about content - vprice@csudh.edu, I want to add a lot of files -

bakersc@wou.edu, I have a technical problem - bakersc@wou.edu, I would like to donate a physical collection - gwilliams@csudh.edu

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Submit your articles/poetry for publication consideration to Pride and a Paycheck at

tradesis@aol.com. For a free subscription to Pride and a Paycheck or information

regarding advertising in Pride and a Paycheck, contact Sue Doro at tradesis@aol.com