Sali (Sarah) Williams, Voices from the Factory Floor

Born in Amlwch; her father was disabled at sea. There was no money for schooling and she left school in Amlwch when she was 14. Someone from the Tobacco factory came to offer her a job. Her grandfather carried tobacco from the station to the factory and perhaps knew the boss. She started working in 1938 after some kind of interview.

 

Her first day was O.K. because she knew quite a few of the people working there. Her job was to weigh the tobacco into ounces. She worked at a table with three other girls Someone else packed the tobacco into round packages. The company was called E. Morgan & Co. There were three tobacco factories in Amlwch at this time, one next door to Sali’s present home – Huw Owen & Co. The boss lived in her present home. At the time Sali lived on the way to Porth Amlwch. She walked or cycled to work.

 

Hours: 8-4.30, with an hour for dinner. She went home for dinner – no canteen in works. Sometimes she did overtime if there was a large order. She sat down to work. It was interesting. The tobacco came in large boxes from Liverpool. Cartrers brought them from the station. They went, after weighing and packaging to shops across Wales..

 

11.30 In the morning the office would tell her her work for the day – 16 ounce boxes, weighed in individual ounces. Each tobacco had a name – e.g. Hen Aelwyd and Pride of Wales. The factory was quite large. The leaves were taken upstairs through a trap door, pressed and spread out on staging, treated with water, left to dry until of the right texture and then baked. Men did this work. Sali and the girls rolled and packed the tobacco into ounces. Some girls also twisted the tobacco – rolling it into a kind of rope and putting olive oil on it and then pressing it for days. This tobacco would be smoked in pipes or chewed.

 

She was good at the work. She also had to put the tobacco in a sort of funnel to make it neat and round. HMS customs called sometimes without warning to check there wasn’t too much water in the tobacco. A supervisor brought the orders to Sali. The same tobacco went into each wrapper though they were called different names.

 

19.00 She worked there for four years until called up to the Land Army. Most of the girls were young – few worked after getting married then. Sali herself had the job of a woman who got married and moved to Chester.

 

Everyone got on. It was not 'hygienic', a bucket to wash hands, no tap, no water toilets. She doesn’t remember any accidents – though the belt to make Twisted Tobacco The work wasn’t dirty – though she used her hands. Her skin wasn’t stained and the olive oil was lovely. She wore a kind of overall which every worker bought for herself.

 

23.00 She earned about 10 shillings a week. The men -earned £1.50 because they had to keep house. The girls didn’t complain ‘that was the age, no one was better than any one else, they weren’t high wages.’ Sali gave ‘a little bit’ of her wages to her mother and kept the rest to go to the cinema. She was also a member of societies such as the Band of Hope, Girls’ Friendly Society, etc.

 

She lived at home at this time. Her brother was in the RAF after being a stone mason. Most of her family were at sea, except her grandfather and brother.

 

There was no union in the factory – no one called for one. She doesn’t remember a strike. At the beginning of the war men left the factory for the army, leaving elderly men and those in poor health behind. There was a good relationship between the men and the girls with quite a bit of leg pulling. Her husband had started in the factory but was called up to the navy. Sali doesn’t smoke – just the occasional puff. She can’t remember anyone stealing tobacco but ‘I wouldn’t be surprised’ she says. It’s likely the bosses turned a blind eye because they sold cigarettes which they had bought in bulk from Wills to the workers. This was the largest tobacco factory in Amlwch. The factory also made snuff – the girls took the snuff and their noses went red. Sali didn’t do so.

 

30.40 She had a fortnight’s holiday in the summer but only went on the occasional trip to Liverpool or on a day out on the train. They also had Bank holidays at Xmas and Easter. If you were ill you had to have a doctor’s paper but she is uncertain whether there was any sick pay. The bosses were very strict. The factory had a large back door and some workers tried to snaek in here if they were late. She tried it once but was caught and told to use the front door.

 

She liked the work, she was quite happy and enjoyed the company. You came across all sort. The work wasn’t very monotonous, although it was the same every day, but it was work. She di the same work all the time and was not given an opportunity to learn new skills or be a supervisor, because there were older workers than her there – making the Taffi Twist, though they tended to marry and leave. At one time she was the oldest on her table and so had more responsibility, looking after the orders.

 

She didn’t think the factory was an uncomfortable place to work and people got used to it there. When she was called up in 1942 the boss told her there would be room for her in the factory when she returned. She was in the Land Army for three years, and she returned to the factory for a little while.

 

She spent the war on farms in Wales and lastly in Anglesey. She enjoyed- milking, collecting eggs and feeding the animals. The last farm was strict – she couldn’t touch anything in the house though she lived there. She was happy going to Bangor to the cinema and to dances. She was 18 joining up and a local doctor suggested she could be a nurse, but she landed in the Land Army. Another girl form the factory joined the Land Army too and she cycled to see her on the farm in Brynsiencyn. She had to pay to use the bike although it belonged to the army.

 

40.00 She had 12 shillings 6 pence and food and lodging in the Land Army. After the war she returned to the factory to a higher wage. She lived at home until she married. Her husband was in the navy and then in the tobacco factory before moving to another factory. They married in 1949, Sali was 25. She left the factory when she was expecting her first child. She didn’t return there because she had 5 children and she stayed at home to bring them up.

 

In the factory the workers didn’t organise parties, though they got together for special occasions such as Christmas. The bosses didn’t organise anything. They were paid overtime – Sali worked some Saturdays if the orders needed to be completed.

 

Sali says she has had a full life, though she has lost her husband, and recently her oldest son. Towards the end Sali talks about some experiences she had in the Land Army, e.g. borrowing jewellery from a baroness, who had a mansion on Anglesey, to go to a dance and a GI thinking she’d had them as a gift from someone.