Compaigning for workers and living with tragedy
Can you tell me about your childhood? Where did you grow up?
I grew up living on Lincoln Rd in Addington. I went to Wharenui School and then Hillmorton High School – they were good schools. My mum had commercial glasshouses, and she used to grow about 5000 tomato plants and so as a child, I was always working in the glasshouses, packing them for the market. She had a little shop, where people used to come in and buy cucumbers and tomatoes.
What was your first job?
As soon as I could leave school [at 16], I started working with racehorses.
What made you want to work with racehorses?
All my life my mum had racehorses. My mum used to drive the horse down Lincoln Rd to Addington Raceway and train the horses.
How long did you work with racehorses for?
I worked with racehorses for probably 10 years. They were standardbreds. That’s where I met my late husband, Murray, he also worked with horses.
How exactly did you meet?
I went with my mum up to a course in Nelson for harness racing and my late husband was up there. He comes from Nelson. At the time he was there at that meeting.
And did you introduce yourself?
No he came up and met me. I’m a really shy person, or used to be really shy.
What’s been your favourite job and why?
It’d have to be the racehorses, I love animals and horses. After about 10 years I left working with the horses because we bought a house. And of course, it was very poor money working with racehorses years ago so I left to get another job. My late husband had his own trainer’s licence at that stage, so we always had horses, when he was alive. We had a couple of horses he was training, while we both had other jobs to pay for our house.
Would you ever get back into it?
I was in it for a few years, we breed a few foals, it’s a really expensive hobby though. So with me working at Wendy’s at the moment it wouldn’t be possible. I’ve got a sister-in-law who has horses, and my sister who lives in the United States trains racehorses. It’s a big part of my life.
What are your hobbies?
I love racehorses. I still love sidecar racing even though it’s hard, but that was a huge part of my life. My late husband raced, we went from Invercargill to Nelson to Westport to Blenheim and all around the South Island. So most weekends we were away with the sidecars.
Did you race sidecars also?
No, I was just a supporter. After my late husband died, I became a representative for the speedway for a couple of years just to help out and carry on. But I haven’t had much to do with it since working at Wendy’s because you have to work most weekends. I still love to watch it.
How did your late husband get into sidecar racing?
He got into it through friends. He never had anything to do with motorbikes. Unfortunately, not long before he died he decided he would give up sidecars and go back to harness racing. So it was going to be his last year but, unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out.
How old was he when he
died?
He died a week before his 40th birthday so I buried him on his birthday. It was a hard day, let’s put it that way.
What’s your advice for people who are grieving?
I think everybody’s different but I think you have to press on and work your way through it. At the end of the day, I’m so proud I’ve got my son, Josh. That’s probably helped me through it, encouraged me through. It’s a hard thing. I was so lucky at the time, we still had racehorses and I had his motorbikes. The following year, I fixed up his bike and a friend of ours raced it for me. And that helped me through it. People were saying it was the bike or it was this, but it was just a freak accident, and it was my husband’s own fault. And then I took over training the horses we had at the time but I still continued through life normally. I had a son to bring up so I didn’t just step away and lock myself away from the world, I carried on.
Does your son race sidecars or horses?
No, he hates horses because every day he wasn’t at pre-school he would come to the farm with me. He’s not even interested in animals now. And he’s not into sidecars either. I remember one particular day the following year [from my husband’s death], my friend had raced the bike and the next day you always clean-up. And they started the bike in the driveway and my son was indoors, he shut the door and locked himself in the house. He was hiding under the table. The noise of the bike terrified him. We had to take the sliding door off to get into the house. He’s into computer technology and PlayStations.
Were you and your son at the race when your late husband died?
I was lucky that my son was at my mum’s house. But yes, I was there watching the race.
How did you end up at Wendy’s and why did you take the stand over lieu days?
When I left working with the horses, I worked for Toyota, doing assembly parts for six years. It used to be in Christchurch. I became a member of what used to be the engineer’s union. So when I was at Wendy’s, I was there for about a year and didn’t join the union. The union used to come in. I was just doing my job and going home every day but then I saw how people were being treated. The young ones get bossed and yelled at and told to work faster when it was busy. Because I’m one of the older ones there, none of them had any idea of how to stand up for themselves. It was really awful. And one day the organiser came in and talked to me and I told him we needed a union delegate here and he asked if I’d be interested and so, I took it on.
How did you feel winning the case against Wendy’s?
Pretty good actually, because it’s not really only for me, it’s for a whole lot of the other workers as well. One of the people in Auckland, who works at a Wendy’s store, has been there for more than nine years and has never had a lieu day.
- Categories
- New Zealand
Comments