A different Masonite memory
As our regular readers know, we recently devoted a Sunday edition of the Daily Journal to memories of the Masonite factory in its heyday. We did that because it is now under demolition in 2007. Part of that effort was asking local residents who worked there for their memories and many of them responded. More are coming in and we will continue to share them with our readers on Jody Martinez's popular history page which also appears on Sundays. We also are continuing to interview former employees for multimedia slide shows, a new one of which went up this week so you should check it out.
One written memory came to us hand written by a woman who started to work at Masonite in 1977 at $4.90 per hour. She would not let us use her name and she makes some specific allegations that we cannot confirm and so we didn't publish her piece. However, she raises an issue - as one of only about five women working in the plant itself as a machine operator - that no one else has so far: sexual harassment. According to this woman, it was fairly rampant at the plant. In 1977 that would certainly not be surprising. She says she eventually quit her job because she could not get Masonite supervisors to take her seriously. But she got a little of her own back a few years later when she was able to provide information in the case of another woman who sued Masonite for sexual harassment and who this former employee says won her case in federal court in San Francisco.
And, even though this woman believes she was mistreated in her effort to get some action on her harasser (she cites the "old boys club" more than once) she still maintains that her job at Masonite was a really good job, that as a single woman she was able to support a family of six on her Masonite salary and that she remembers "great company picnics, great safety dinners, and safety prizes and really good pay in later years."