The expansive Scarboro site included an elaborate aboveground gallery network spanning more than three miles. Employees travelled to their respective fuse-filling workshops through these temperature-controlled, windowless, enclosed walkways. Berms surrounded some clean-side buildings to minimize potential damage to surrounding structures in case of explosion. Courtesy of Archives of Ontario.
At critical points in the covered corridors, workmen installed steel safety doors to prevent a potential fire from spreading through the complex via the hallways.105 To minimize the spread of fire or explosion, the points at which lateral galleries entered the main cleanways running north/south were offset.106 The engineering sketch of GECO depicts these offset cleanways and tunnels very well. For example, the entrances to the gallery system and tunnel system from Building No. 56 and No. 59 are staggered, not directly across from each other. If an explosion or fire occurred in one building, the hope was that it would be harder to spread to the building on the other side of the cleanway.
Canada’s governor general, the Earl of Athlone, husband to Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, remarked on a visit to the plant that the galleries were “long, spotless, wooden-floored halls, where employees marched smartly, avoiding such dangerous static-producers as dragging their feet or rubbing their hands along the walls.”107
Even more extraordinary than GECO’s unique aboveground gallery system was the extensive tunnel system that ran under the complex.108 The tunnels housed essential services like lines for water, electrical power, steam, and compressed air for the entire plant.109 Installing services below ground allowed maintenance and repairs to be carried out without disruption to workers in the workshops above or risking explosion by carrying out maintenance in sensitive fuse-filling shops.110 GECO’s tunnel system was byzantine, and even during construction workers were warned of the potential danger of losing their bearings while underground.111 All work was kept to short sections of tunnel. The tunnel walls were built from reinforced masonry blocks, tall and wide enough to easily accommodate skids of munitions.112 This type of construction could withstand shock and collapse should an explosion occur, and survive a potential cave-in due to seismic activity, similar to precautions taken in earthquake zones.113 The ceilings of the tunnels were made from two-by-eight-inch planks of local hardwood, turned on their thin sides, then nailed and glued, offering the same strength as “super structures” found in workshop ceilings.114 The honeycomb tunnel system, in desperate circumstances, could have been used to protect GECO’s employees from possible air raids, enemy invasion, and explosions, or provide an evacuation route. There is no oral or written record to ascertain if the tunnels were ever used for these purposes.
There is ongoing debate as to whether GECO situated washrooms in its tunnel system. According to Sidney Ledson and Philip Hamilton, two GECO employees, the tunnels were not accessible to workers.115 Furthermore, through interviews, several surviving female workers confirmed they had no knowledge of tunnels running under their feet. However, in GECO’s written account, it states: “… washrooms were situated inside, above, or adjacent to the service tunnels.”116 According to the 1956 Fire Insurance Plan of Toronto, there is a washroom seemingly underground, housed in Building No. 74.117 Logically, and despite the debate, while the tunnel system ran underground on the clean side, they were not “clean.” Accessing washrooms below ground would have rendered workers “dirty” and not fit to return to their shops. If there were washrooms located underground, they were used by maintenance workers only.
GECO’s extensive gallery and tunnel system were remarkable accomplishments. Even more extraordinary, a second tunnel system stretched out directly beneath the upper tunnels to house GECO’s plumbing infrastructure.118
Guns and Gum
In addition to the specific safety precautions taken in the design and wearing of her uniform, operators were trained in first aid, the use of fire extinguishers, expected to follow strict workshop regulations, and prohibited from carrying contraband onto the clean side of the plant.119 The list of prohibited items was extensive and demanded a good memory. “I forgot” was not an acceptable excuse.120 In fact, there was a zero tolerance policy for contraband found on any GECO employee. Contraband included food; drink; chewing gum; matches, or any other means of lighting a fire; any type of tobacco or snuff; any metal object such as keys, knives, scissors, watches, or loose change; any article made from silk or artificial silk in any form; and live animals.121
Dorothy Cheesman recalled that the list of banned items was much lengthier; they were not even allowed a deck of playing cards.122 Molly Danniels remembered they had to keep their fingernails short.123
Death and Disfigurement
While GECO suffered no fatal occupational accidents during its operation, inevitably, by the very nature of the work carried out at the plant, mishaps and explosions did occur.124 “We had a lot of small explosions,” Bob Hamilton recounted in a media interview.125 “The unit which gave us the most trouble was the tracer; a four-inch-long steel tube which fit in the bottom of a shell. When the shell is ejected, the heat ignites the tracer and you can see where it goes. Specs call for compressing the ignitable material almost to its breaking point. Occasionally there would be slag in the shell, and the compression would ignite it in the shell and there’d be a large flare in the shop; twenty-five women quit.”126 Molly Danniels confirmed Bob’s account; she was in the workshop when a blast occurred, and witnessed more than two dozen women walking out. Molly stayed.127
Another mishap, more serious, occurred when Assistant Forman P.W. Meaham “suffered severe injuries to his arms” while “proofing” filled munitions for quality assurance in the Proof Yard.128 After recovering, Mr. Meaham, perhaps appropriately, joined the Safety Department.129 Bob Hamilton recalls one big accident toward the end of the war after a night shift. “The head of the Proof Department was obviously tired and wanted to go home,” Bob said, “and he hurried up proofing a shell, a fuse it was, and it went off in his hands and practically blinded him.”130 Bob continues, “That was due to fatigue and a Saturday night wanting to get home. He broke three safety regulations in doing that. You do those things when you’re tired.”131 A cartoon ran in the newspaper warning clean-side employees: “Fingers do not grow on trees — watch what yours are doing, please.”132
An internal review of industrial relations at the plant took place mid-1943, with the following comment made in regards to GECO’s accident history: “The record of this Company in accident occurrence is low to an outstanding degree in comparison with other (including non-explosives) companies, throughout Ontario.”133
The Tetryl Dilemma
Munitions filling at GECO included using a yellow crystal-like concoction called tetryl, a highly sensitive explosive used in Britain and the United States during the First and Second World Wars. In its solid state, tetryl didn’t pose much of a hazard to GECO’s personnel — other than it being highly explosive — but when it was ground into a fine dust it became airborne, likely to settle on employee uniforms, caking their hands, and getting into their eyes and lungs. Tetryl had the potential to be highly toxic to some operators, and was a potent source of occupational illness.134 Severity of symptoms varied depending on the degree of exposure to the tetryl and how sensitive the operator was to its components.135 Symptoms included eye and skin irritation, including discolouration, or “yellow-staining,” of hands, neck, and hair, stomach upsets including nausea and diarrhea, cough, sore throat, upper respiratory wheezing and congestion, headache and fatigue, and nose bleeds.136 While it was not known if tetryl affected reproduction, a rumour circulated around the plant that women who worked with tetryl could not bear children.137
Bob and Phil Hamilton and their entire management team, including Dr. Jeffrey, GECO’s chief physician, recognized the potential hazard in working with tetryl. The First World War English munitions plant at Hayes (which GECO mirrored) recorded four deaths due to toxic jaundice.138 To minimize the haz
ards associated with tetryl, GECO management considered its effects in every decision made, even during the early days of construction. The toxic nature of airborne tetryl dust made it necessary to keep H.E. filling operations entirely separate from other areas in the plant. Only women who worked directly with tetryl were exposed to its potential toxins, not every employee.
During GECO’s initial hiring campaign, Dr. Jeffrey wrote that, “special attention was given to skin conditions and chronic respiratory ailments which might incapacitate operators working with tetryl.”139 Some women were hired to work solely on the G.P. line due to pre-existing conditions such as eczema or asthma, which, with repeated contact with tetryl, could endanger their health.140 Dr. Jeffrey noted later on that skin conditions were not as important as certain chronic respiratory ailments in choosing workers for tetryl filling shops.141
To further segregate operators who worked with tetryl, GECO set up a separate area in change houses where specific attention was given to uniforms needing more rigorous laundering and skin protection, including the application of special creams.142 Nursing staff were in attendance during shift changes to offer tetryl-related advice.143 Sue Szydlik, GECOite Irene Darnbrough’s daughter, remembers her mother using a cola soft-drink to wash off the yellow stains. “They would wash in it before leaving the plant.”144 Sylvia Nordstrand’s sister filled tracers. “She became all yellow, clothes and skin, and she never seemed to get rid of it until she left for any length of time, holidays, etc.”145 The methods used in GECO’s change rooms to manage tetryl rash became a standard for other munitions plants across Canada.146
The art of stemming — pressing a specified quantity of high explosives powders into certain areas within a fuse — caused a fine dust of tetryl to spread, and in spite of standard precautions taken, an inordinate number of women were exposed to its potential ill effects.149 Management decided that only specially selected operators who tolerated the effects of tetryl well would be assigned to stemming work.150 These operators worked from outside a hood or “lighthouse” that vented to the outside and could accommodate six or eight operators.151 When GECO first got underway, each filling shop did their own stemming according to English peacetime practices.152 However, as the war progressed, a dedicated stemming shop — “60B” — Building No. 60, Workshop B — was opened.153 Segregating and merging these two operations helped confine tetryl dust to one location and greatly reduced the incidence of rash and tetryl-related ailments.154 GECO management was able to assign operators to 60B who were essentially immune to the effects of tetryl.155
Last, but certainly not least, GECO kept meticulous records of each shift, breaking absenteeism down by category and sub-category. Staff tracked how many operators were absent, not only due to every type of illness imaginable — cold, upper and lower respiratory, gastro, genito-urinary, rheumatic, fainting, nervousness, eye trouble, dental, headaches, and night shift complaints — but also accidents, both explosive and other, and occupational illnesses like tetryl poisoning.156
Through these initiatives GECO management was able to greatly reduce, if not eliminate altogether, the threat of toxicity among their female operators.157 The Toronto East Medical Association’s Official Bulletin in February 1944 acknowledged GECO’s attempt to minimize the hazard of tetryl exposure: “The only girls exposed to the bleaching effect of powder are those filling fuses, and they work directly under suckers (exhaust hoods). This is a very small percentage and the great remainder do a multitude of duties such as assembling, inspection, etc.”158 GECO did not record one death associated with toxic jaundice, and there is no record of any women needing treatment after the war ended.159
If women were leery about working with tetryl, they needed only look to their history, and the Great War for motivation. “Stained hands and coppery hair — what are these?” asked a Great War worker. “Do we fear temporary disfigurement when men, for the same cause, are facing death and the horrible and permanent disfigurement of maimed limbs or blinded eyes? Munition life is the greatest chance that has ever come to us women.”161
Conclusion
Early in GECO’s history, in July 1942, Ross Davis, editor of the plant’s newspaper, made the following observation: “Where in some industries the emphasis is placed almost entirely on maximum production and the worker left to look after his own safety, here the stress was placed — and remains there — on safety. It has been good insurance in the past as “Scarboro’s” record proves — it is good insurance now — and will continue good insurance in the future. All that is needed to keep our record clean is continued good teamwork on the ‘clean side.’”162
Major Flexman, in the last issue of the newspaper, summed up GECO’s exemplary safety record: “Suffice to say that in all the period from 1941 to the present not one serious accident occurred in the production shops of the Plant. This is a unique record and speaks volumes for the efficiency of our Safety Department and for the loyal co-operation of all engaged in the filling shops in carrying out the rules which they all realized were made for their own protection and for the uninterrupted operation of the Plant.”163 Major Flexman’s opinion reflected a huge shift from Bob Hamilton’s early days when he had stated that Scarboro had been “conceived, constructed, organized and operated for but one purpose — production,” where even the safety of their employees did not take precedence.164
When designing the plant at Scarboro, production was foremost on everyone’s minds, however, safety was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. GECO’s safety record was exceptional and unrivalled in wartime munitions plant operations. Despite the odds and the history that preceded them, thousands of women worked with high explosives over four years at GECO and filled over a quarter of a billion units of munitions without one fatal occupational accident.165 From plant design to site security, from burying “igloos” to “super structures,” from windowless workshops to heavy fire doors, from enforcing strict workshop rules to calling out “All Clear!” GECO made every decision with safety in mind.166
9
Whistle While You Work:
Industrial Relations and Personnel
Industrial Relations
Thile everyone who worked at GECO agreed that peace in the world superseded any personal agenda, both management and employees had their own particular motivations, problems, and expectations. GECO created their Industrial Relations Department as a liaison between its employees and management.1 Industrial Relations staff handled employee queries pertaining to employment, working conditions, fair wages, recreational activities, and they were responsible for publishing GECO’s employee newspaper.2 The department also dealt with any complaints or grievances that could not be resolved to the satisfaction of employees and management at the production level of the organization.3 The adage “whistle while you work” rang true for GECO workers. Instead of the grime and roar of machines found in other war plants throughout the nation, songs sung by female operators filled the air at “Scarboro” in surroundings that were just as clean and quiet as their own homes.4
Personnel
The Personnel Department, housed in Building No. 2 on the dirty side of the plant, and in the clean-side office in Building No. 153 in the Danger Zone, was mandated to hire the very best employees that could be found, and to make their stays at GECO as “pleasant, profitable, and prolonged as possible.”5 The three “P’s” sounded easy, but it took a constant and applied effort to retain employees who were willing to stay regardless of other perhaps more lucrative employment elsewhere, including other war industries. “Workers who move from one plant to another lose time from work,” Bob Hamilton said.6 “Time is wasted in training them for new jobs. This is a hindrance to Canada’s war effort and a help to the enemy.”7 There was an initial period of employee flux early on when GECO struggled to replace employees who could not adjust to the conditions of war work.8 Thankfully, for all concerned, the workforce stabilized in the latter half of 1942.9 In August 1942, GECO reached its highest level of em
ployment with 5,324 men and women working around the clock.10
Department staff handled employee questions, resolved problems, and provided information on all company and community resources.11 The personnel team also welcomed constructive suggestions that could help improve morale or production.12
There’s Got to Be a Better Way
Management encouraged and welcomed constructive suggestions from employees on all aspects of plant life,13 and was particularly interested in ideas that could save time, labour, or material.14 Listening to their largely female employee base for suggestions was innovative and a huge improvement from the attitudes around women’s war work in the Great War, when women were treated like children, thought incapable of advanced thinking. “Engineering mankind is possessed of the unshakable opinion”, a First World War worker stated, “that no woman can have the mechanical sense.”15 If women challenged the men, however humbly, during those years, they were told gently that if any improvement could be made, a man would have made it prior to her arrival. “As long as we do exactly what we are told and do not attempt to use our brains, we give entire satisfaction, and are treated as nice, good children. Any swerving from the easy path prepared for us by our males arouses the most scathing contempt in their manly bosoms.”16
At Scarboro, to help employees offer suggestions for improvement at GECO, suggestion boxes were set up at convenient locations around the plant.17 When an employee saw an opportunity to create a better tool, a more efficient way to fill fuses, a way to make a “better” (more deadly) fuse — anything that would help to move an “empty” through the plant more cost-effectively, or shorten the steps to fill it — they were encouraged to write the suggestion down and place it in the box. By April 1944 more than one thousand suggestions had been received, and more than half of those had been implemented and their owners suitably rewarded.18 Names of award winners appeared in GECO’s newspaper; however, only names of the winners were listed because “details of the nature of the work done in this plant would be revealed which come under the heading of military secrets.”19
Bomb Girls Page 16
