I recently conducted an oral history interview with a man who worked for Norfolk and Western Railway, as part of a larger oral history project called Stories of Life and Labor: oral histories from Portsmouth Ohio. He did not want his identity disclosed as he still has many friends who work for the company, but he talked to me for about an hour about a variety of topics, including the 1978 railroad strike and his part in it. While he had some very interesting things to say regarding the strike, the majority of out time was spent discussing the inner workings of industry itself, how it has evolved over the years and how the employees have been and continue to be treated.
On November 22, I recorded the interview from which the following clip has been cut. In this highlight, the interviewee discusses the affects that the working conditions of the railway had on his personal life and mental well being. He claims that irregular and sporadic hours were required of most employees, and as a result, his family life was not ideal, and he suffered from anxiety and depression. Ultimately he believed that harsh working conditions may have endangered railway employees and that managment refused to do anything about it.
I hope the following clip is intruiging and intices readers to follow up with the interviews by listening to complete oral histories available through the below link.
