I started off down at the plant in 1972 and I tried almost everything. Once I got so much seniority, I could try for a different job every week if it was posted. The last five or six years I was down there I worked as a janitor. I was after going right through the plant and had a crack at it all - trimming and packing and weighing. The only thing I never did was cutting.

When I used to work as a janitor I had my name in for the watch house too. They needed an extra one on the weekends, so if I was on day shift I used to go in the watch house on Friday and Saturday night. I'd work from twelve in the night till eight in the morning. I was the first woman that ever worked out in the watch house, but I had to fight to get in there. I had to put in a grievance because they wouldn't let me in there at first.

I worked two years in the watch house and the money was good. If the plant didn't close down I don't know if I'd still be there. I'll tell you the truth, it's an awful lonely place for a woman, and for a man too. The other ! night attendant told me he used to take a stick with him because he was nervous. I was too. You had one night attendant down on the trawlers and one up in the watch house for eight hours, and you would probably never run into each other. You had to go right through the plant and there wasn't another soul there. In the meal plant there'd be cats up on the rafters and everything. There was times I was frightened to death.