“SIX WAYS TO DO POTATOES” IS WHAT HE SAID TO ME
PAT MENZ 24 NOVEMBER 1988
Toowoomba singer song-writer poet.
Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! All up! All up! The call rang out along the chain. That was the call to let us know that there was trouble somewhere in the meatworks. The word spread quickly; they had just sacked one of our workmates on the beef slaughter floor. He had been working there since he was fourteen, he had three months to go before he retired. They had stood behind him watching, waiting, waiting for him to move a fraction off the centre of the carcass of beef that he was sawing down with the three-foot electric circular saw. Fifteen years he had been on that job, his workmates said that he was the best sawman in Australia.
The company needed an excuse, the price of cattle at the Cannon Hill sale earlier that Tuesday morning, was giving the farmers a good return, which meant a smaller profit for the meat exporters. They needed to hang off; a stop in production until prices dropped. But they had their export agreements with the Japanese buyers to keep. But then there was one way out, if there was an industrial dispute then that relieved them of that commitment.
The foreman had stood waiting with his orders in mind. The first warning, the second, then he darted like a shark at its prey. “That’s it!” “That’s it!” you’re sacked. That was the thanks after fifty years of service, fifty years of his life. They knew the men wouldn’t take it. They knew the men would support their workmate. We all went up to the lunch room to hear the report from the beef slaughter floor delegate. A motion was moved, “No further work to take place anywhere in the whole of the Abattoir Plant until Jim was reinstated.” The vote was taken, everyone was in agreement, we all stuck together
“Six ways to do potatoes” is what he said to me.
With the good prices being paid on the Tuesday the farmers started to send more stock for the Thursday sale, but with nothing being slaughtered the prices dropped. The farmers lost out, and the meat exporters were happy. Our workmate Jim was reinstated on Thursday after news of the lower prices being paid for cattle at the sale became known. Things settled down again for a while.
We were working on the mutton chain; I remember the day. I had been working beside one of the older workers. They came up and asked him, “Will you take on the job?” “Will you be foreman?” He shook his head and said ‘No!’ I said to him later, “You knocked it back hey?” He said “Yeah, I always knock it back, but they always come back and ask.”
“Six ways to do potatoes”, is what he said to me.
We had worked on the mutton chains there, it was coming up to Easter. Melrose Meats had the contract to supply all the State Government Institutions. Melrose was on the Abattoir Board! All the shop butcher owners had agreed to pay their butchers a raise of $10 but Melrose, – “No!” So every morning they put the Melrose sheep up the race first to be slaughtered, and every morning we knocked them back. “When you pay your workers their $10, the $10 that they are entitled to, then we’ll do your sheep.” It was a couple of days before Easter, every day they put them up the race first, and every day we refused. We had to work the day before and the day after a public holiday to be entitled to be paid for the Easter break. The vote was taken, we stood firm, we stood solid, we stood proud, “Solidarity” with our brothers in the shops. We knocked them back, we wouldn’t do them. We didn’t care about losing our Easter pay. “We cared about our Brothers”. That was my university.
“Six ways to do potatoes”, is what he said to me.
The organiser from Trades Hall came down, the right winger from Santamaria’s group-from the NCC, and ordered us back to work. Told us that they would fine us; if we didn’t go back to work. What that does to a person’s spirit, to a person’s soul when you’re ordered to sell your brothers out…
“Six ways to do potatoes”, is what he said to me.
I remember the days when I moved from sheep and went to beef; went to beef in another town. Worked the beef chains…three days a week, and I heard Nixon, his words are clear in my mind. Nixon! The minister for Primary Industries in the Frazor Razor Gang. He said “We’ll give them three days a week. It’s a good way to keep a starving if stable workforce and when it picks up again, they’ll still be there. Give then three days a week, it’s a couple of dollars more that the dole; They can’t get the dole. They’ll always be there when we need them again.”
“Six ways to do potatoes”, is what he said to me.
I felt the oppression and I will never forget what the ruling class will come at :- Live exports send our jobs out of this country. I was at Hamilton Wharf. The spirit that almost flew out of me that day when the workers were on the chain-wire fence and it swayed to the ground. I’ll always remember that feeling because I know it will come one day, when the workers of the world will be free. The workers will walk, hand in hand with liberty. “Yes:” I remember that day when the young fifteen year old swum the Brisbane River. Swam the river to let the cattle out of the trucks that were waiting to be loaded on the ship. Let them out to divert Police attention from the workers who were pushing down on the chain-wire fence. “Yes!” I felt that spirit, uplifted by the millions of workers who had gone before us, the down trodden workers.
The spirit…The spirit of the Irish from the Great Potato Famine. The spirit that they spread throughout the world. That they tried to suppress….The flame that they can never put out. The flame, that will free the world.
“Six ways to do potatoes”, is what he said to me.
I remember back; I asked him “What did he mean?” He told me of the Great Meat Strike of 1946…..How they were out for four months. He said “I’ll never forget. I raised my kids on potatoes.” He said “You know there’s six ways to cook potatoes. I’ll never give myself to these bludgers. I am Working Class, through and through and that’s the way it will always be.” “I am proud” he said “to work on the mutton chain with me mates. I am a worker through and true.”
“Six ways to do potatoes”, is what he said to me.
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