When I went to Sydney, I went to the union and they gave me two or three places to go and apply and at every one of them, the job had been filled at least two weeks before I got to it.
Before I went to Sydney, a contact said told me: “Here’s the name of a bloke at Cumberland Newspapers. If you can’t find a job, give him a ring. I know you’re not supposed to, but I’m sure he can help.”
Anyway, after trundling all over Sydney for a couple of weeks, and getting out to printing works that didn’t have any jobs going, I gave this bloke a ring. He said: “Can you come out and I’ll interview you.”
I went out the next afternoon, and he was on the night shift. It turned out he’d worked at the Armidale Express office. He was interviewing me at Cumberland Newspapers and he said: “Is old so-and-so still working at the Express?”
I said “Yeah.”
He goes: “Did you do your apprenticeship with him?”
“Yeah.”
“You wouldn’t know anything would you?”
I thought, well here’s the end of this interview. What can I say? So I thought quickly and said: “Well, I want to get more experience. That’s why I’m down here, to learn different techniques and improve.”
“Alright,” he said. “Can you start Monday? You’ll have to get an OK Card from the union, and I don’t know how you’re going to do that. If I don’t see you Monday, I’ll know you haven’t got it.”
So I went into the union and asked for my OK Card, and they looked around for a fair while and spoke among themselves and finally this chap came over and said: “Did you canvass for this job?”
I said: “Well I phoned up to see if they had any work.”
“That’s canvassing. You can’t do that, you’re a scab.”
“Oh, right, I didn’t know that,” I said, trying to play dumb.
Anyway he scribbled out the OK Card and threw it on the floor and said: “There you go you bastard, you’re a scab.”
I thought, maybe I’m a scab, but I’ve got a job.
Terry Mitchell
Print’s Past excepts are drawn from interviews held by Benjamin Thorn, curator of the Armidale Museum of Printing, and are due to be published in a forthcoming book.
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