Date of birth: 16 November 1918
Place of birth: Kalavasos, Cyprus
Arrived in Australia: 16 July 1951
Occupation: Factory worker
I was born in Cyprus in the village of Kalavasos. My village is big compared to the other villages of the region. When I left the village, the population was almost 1,520 people. It is a mining area, and when I lived in the village there was a big Greek chemical and fertilizer company. I remember when my father was alive, he was self employed. We have a gypsum kiln and we made plaster. I remember my father used to take the plaster and sell it to the villages. My father supported his family with the gypsum kiln. There were five children in the family, three girls and two boys.
It’s six years now since I’ve worked in a factory. Since I became ill I cannot take part in the union and attend their meetings like I did in the past. Now, I am simply a life-long member of my union. I believe that the worker has to protect his rights, and that he is the trade union, not the executive committee.
I finished primary school. I couldn’t go on to high school because my father was poor and he couldn’t afford a higher education for me. I wanted so much to continue high school and I feel it was unjust, because I think I could have continued to a higher educational level. Since I couldn’t continue on to high school, I went and worked in a service station as a motor mechanic apprentice. When I finished the apprenticeship I was 18 years old, and I got a job as a mechanic in the Greek chemical and fertilizers company.
When the war (1) broke out I was forced to go into the army. I was in the army for six years. In 1943 I returned to the village on army leave and I got engaged. The photograph was taken on the day of my engagement. We were engaged for three and a half years and in 1946 on the 25th October we got married.
After the war, there were jobs available in my village. When I returned from the army I got a job in the company again, as an engine driver. There were 7,000 of us working for the company. Myself and a few others were pressured by the company because we were progressive and we looked after workers’ rights in the guilds. They were pressuring us and I was forced to leave Cyprus. My eldest brother was in England and he wanted to bring me to England also. I went, but I didn’t like it. The weather was very bad and wages weren’t good. On the 16th June, 1951, I managed to come to Australia.
The photograph was taken in 1947 outside the company in Cyprus. I am driving the tractor and behind me are fellow workers.
When I disembarked at Port [Melbourne] there was no one to meet me and I went to ‘Democritus’ (2). When I entered I saw a frontisti (3) inside. This frontisti was a fellow country man who I worked with back in Cyprus. He hugged me and said: ‘Come upstairs.’ I went upstairs, and afterwards other fellow villagers came. My fellow villagers managed to find me shelter and on Monday I began work. The frontisti had two brothers in Cyprus whom I had worked with and they told me about ‘Democritus’, and that’s how I knew about the club. I was very happy when I made contact with this club. It was a club where we went to have our coffee, to see a friend and to pass our free time.
‘Democritus’ was the first step in my political life. I liked ‘Democritus’ because it took part in the trade uniion movement. Each year ‘Democritus’ took part in the May Day march. This photograph is from the May Day march in 1956 – myself and many other Greeks took part.
We had formed a working committee that was going to enlighten the workers about working issues. I remember I was voted one of the members of the working committee. Immediately I invited different unionists from various trade unions to come and give a talk at ‘Democritus’ about the purpose of trade unions. I also invited other politicians and one of them was Gordon Bryant (4), the Federal Member for Wills. In the photograph we can see Gordon Bryant standing on the right giving a talk to members of ‘Democritus’. I was chairing the meeting, and I am sitting behind the table.
After I left the ‘Austin’ factory, I got a job at ‘General Motors’. there were many migrants there. I worked at ‘General Motors’ for 27 years. the work at ‘General Motors’ was the hardest job I did because it had a production line, and the production line always chased you. During the first years I was simply a worker. After four years, when they transferred us from Fishermans Bend to Dandenong, I was approached by the organizing secretary Jack Betal (5), and he asked me if I would accept the position of shop steward. I said: ‘If the workers want me, why not!’ We had a meeting, and threee workers were nominated for the position, and I was voted in. I was much loved in this position and after three years they asked me to go on the executive committee of the union. when I got onto the executive committee I worked very hard for the workers and for all of us, the working class. I was on the executive committee for 14 years and a shop steward for 23 years.
There were many pressures on the workers from the bosses. I tried to solve the problems as best I could, and that is why I was loved by the workers. As a shop steward I could see that migrants had problems with the language, and because they didn’t know English, they couldn’t get higher positions within the workforce. As workers they were given the worst jobs to do and they were put under the most pressure. For example, if they saw that more cars were needed they used to increase the speed of the production line and migrants were forced to work like machines. They couldn’t look at one another or even make the slightest movement.
You see there was a great deal of pressure from the companies and workers were exploited a lot. The shop steward, who worked among the workers, wrote reports for the executive committee, and this committee used to study ways of how to improve working conditions. The company began to pressure the progressive workers who had begun to organise with other workers to move for better working conditions. The company tried to sack me three times, but the workers supported me by putting down their tools. the company never succeeded in sacking me because they didn’t want any more problems. Well, that was my life in the factory. The photograph was taken in 1958 when I was giving a talk on behalf of ‘Democritus’. A picnic was given in support of the workers’ newspaper ‘The Guardian’6. I remember the picnic united many workers.
1 The second World War.
2 ‘Democritus’ is a left-wing Greek organization that started on 10th June, 1935.
3 Frontisti – a person who helped newly arrived fellow countrymen.
4 Gordon Bryant was the Federal Member for the electorate of Wills between 1955 and 1980.
5 Jack Betal was the organising secretary of the Vehicle Builders Employees’ Federation in 1957.
6 ‘The Guardian’ was published by the Communist Party of Australia from 1944 to 1966.
Source: ’1985. Brunswick City Council. For a better life we came’. Collected and edited by the Brunswick Oral History Project. Copies available for lending and sale at Moreland City Libraries (Brunswick) ph 9389 8600. Images taken after 1955 are available in the print publication. Original images available in exhibition boxes in storage at Brunswick Library.