FEATURE - U.S. rails hope women, minorities fill labour gaps

[Omaha Steve]

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-07-08T204338Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-283752-1.xml

FEATURE - U.S. rails hope women, minorities fill labour gaps
Sun Jul 8, 2007 8:46 PM IST163

By Nick Carey

CALUMET CITY, Ill. (Reuters) - E. F. Shirley recalled that when she started working on the railroad she ended up in fist fights with male co-workers who were offended by her presence.

"They had to learn that if you push me, I push back," said Shirley with a playful grin, bunching her fists like a boxer.

After 14 years at U.S. railroad Norfolk Southern Corp., the slender, black engineer, who gave her age as "50-something," said her treatment by male colleagues has greatly improved.

"When I started out most men here couldn't handle my being here," she said, readying a locomotive for a day's work in this gritty suburb south of Chicago. "Now the men who object to me being here are a tiny minority."

Shirley and fellow women crew members Germaine McCoy, a 36-year-old engineer, and Leslie Joslin, a 31-year-old conductor, were switching cars, which involves hooking up cars from different tracks and hauling them to another yard.

These women work hard, but never miss a chance to crack a joke and laugh in the hot summer sun. They said they love their jobs, plus "the pay isn't bad either," Joslin quipped.

FULL story at link.

[Oldtimeralso]

1. Railroads and women, yesteryear

During WWII my mother worked in a rail yard servicing and fixing steam locomotives, when the war was over they let her go and told her that it's a man's job.

[MikeNearMcChord]

2. I would like to try my hand working for a Railroad

I have an clock with a drawing of locomotive bearing the old Chessie System
logo, and do love listening to the railroads at night when the pass by, though not often. I ought to find out where they are hiring.