I had every kind of job here that you can imageine, since i’ve been here. I went through all the phases: mecaninc, then I worked in a warehouse, then I finished night-school, I’ve been head of sction and at the same time I did a class for specialists in this field, then I worked in different sections, I took care of the sctions that had smaller production.
I’ve grown old here. After the production line was stopped, the new ownership arrived. They insisted I stay, because I was the only one from the workers who knew knew everything there is to know about the factory: water and plumbing, lights and electric installations, every accesory; so when something goes wrong, I know where to step in. New people appeared, that still don’t know the half there is to know about the place. Over the years, since ’69, there has been an expansion as well, the building that you can see from the front and another level (where the fitness area is today) was bulit, and the four story high buliding which was exclusively for production as well.
The workers had good working conditions. Some of them tried to move their whole life close to the factory, they moved in the neighbourhoods close to it, like: Piata Abatorului, Piata Mihai Viteazul. I lived in the Grigorescu neighbourhood, but it wasn’t a problem, because there way a direct bus line that was fast as well. The conditions were good. If we were to go back for a bit, we must consider that there were always poor people as well. So when they needed a house for example and they were newlyweds or youngsters, they went to the director, and in time they worked it out, they got a one room appartment, maybe a car as well.
It was ok back then, it’s now as well.
We didn’t have problems with the supervisors. They got promoted from being workers. They didn’t forget where they came from. Their work quality was better, the got further with their studies, so more and more responsability came with the function.
I paid a fine when I was young, and worked here. I liked, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a truck, to drive it, you know. We had a truck that we used to bring timber; we just used to dump it in the back, and from there it went on to being chopped up. I was back there, and I got in the truck, and drove it to the entrance, and stopped there. After I left for just a few minutes, an inspection came, PSI. An officer that answered for the area and the factory came. The first thing he saw was the truck parked in the middle of the road at the entrance.
-And this truck? Who parked it here?
-A boy.
-Bring him here. They called me, and I rushed to the scene.
-Did you park this truck here?
-Yeah.
-Are you the one who is supposed to drive it?
-No, I just brought it arround from the back, because (and I lied a little bit, I told him that) it was in the way. I couldn’t reach some equipment.
-Ok then, you’d better find 700 lei then. (700 lei was a lot of money back then..)
-For what?
-Did you even look where you parked?
-Well, I didn’t hit anything.
-No, but you parked on top of a fire hydrant. (it was one of those sewer hydrants, under the surface, the ones you have to open up) What if there would be a fire, right now? And I would have to interveen? And you don’t know anything, you don’t have keys to anything. We couldn’t do anything.
You can’t mess with them, the firemen, they were very strict.
Eh, I made a mistake, a little one, it happens. You know how it is, you can only not make mistakes, if you don’t work.
But between us, the workers, and between the people in general, there was a good relationship. Not like today. There was an other category of people, with other mentalities. They were more united, more involved when there was a problem per say; now I see a certain disctance and coldness between neighbours as well. They keep more to themselves, they’re into their own business. And the children: now kids don’t even know how to play anymore. I see my grandkids. We created games from anything and everything, made swings on a branch and with some srtings..now kids have picky, and they don’t like to get their hands dirty.
There were a lot of sections, there was „laundry” rooms for the hair, processing for the hair, drying room, painting of the hair, carpenting, industrial tin-works, which were used fot the ring of the brush, paint etc. One section processed the hair, it brought the hair collected from the butcheries (they had that obligation back then, to collect all sorts of stuff). So they they brought the hair, dirty, bloody, etc and it went through all the necessary phases: combing, washing, degreaseing, sorting by lenght- there were special machines to do that, sorting them.
We were the only enterprise in the country, that produced the whole brush from scratch, and in such a large collection of them as well as production volume.
There were 5-600 people that worked in shifts, 2, 3, 4, it depends.They always worked manually, not with machines.
All the processing was made manually, meaning you took the hair in your hand, tied it to a sticks and then they were boiled. There were very few machines that did a fraction of the work. You took the hair, put it on the edge of the worktable and combed it, and you detangled the messed up stuff. You can imagine that the hair usually sticks out in every direction, so they took care of that. And let’s take one stread of hair for instance, you have different parts of the hairThe root is a little more pronounced, and the tip is more delicate. . If you cut the tip of the hair, it’s ruined, it’s not as fine as it could be. That’s why they always pick the top and bottom of the hairs. The root part is usually placed and assembled together with the wood and the tin pieces. This way the hold of it is stronger, and doesn’t let the hair slip out.The process itself is hard, for manual work. You could even write a whole book about it, anyway, it take a lot of time to manufacture a quality paintbrush.
Over the years they brought in some second hand machinery from Italy, but later, after the revolution, these replaced a lot of people sadly. They were heavy machinery category, they took over most of the work, and they did it a lot faster. There were still demands though for our brushes, because they were of a higher quality than those imported form Italy, China, France, where the brushes were made by machines. But they could sell their products cheaper than us.
While they made 3000 brushes mechanically, we managed olny 1000 manually. That’s why we couldn’t compete on the market with them. But the quality was indeed demanded.
The old machines, more elementary, were partly sold; some of them are still kept, all crowded in a warehouse. There was talk about a machine exibit for the public, but you need space for that. And the actors and artists are taking up all our space.
Does the production part still exist?
No, that was all stopped.
Why?
I don’t really know if there is some production going on, I do know that Constanţa demands hair from us, we still have some left over, so we help them out with that. We have paintbrushes left over as well, but in very small ammounts, and those that are really old, and can’t be used for much. They weren’t paying enough attention, and they lost the people. Because, what do you do when you go to a market? You buy the cheaper products, be it what may.
Let’s take Clujeana for instance, it was a great leather factory- this involving the purchase of the leather, from Mongolia they brought horse skins, they made and processed the base of the shues. They ended up clothing the NATO soldiers’ feet..
Why did it go into bankrupcy? What’s going on there?
Well, there is a lot going on in those bulidings, a lot of new firms, enterprises. My brother works over there, in Cujeana, and when is came apart, there were only two sections left. My brother was in a lead position there. He went to an italian guy and worked there for 2 years and after the revolution he came home. Clujeana opened again, at least a section, for export footware mostly. And they called him back, promising him a salary on his terms, and whatever he wants.
The workers of the Fabrica de Pensule were let go, and in to unimployment, there wasn’t a sudden break.
What happened to the neighbour factories?
They were mostly sold.
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