Bjørn Mikael Johnsen Production worker, yarn manufacturing Gudbrandsdalens Uldvarefabrik September 2013

I've worked here since 1979. When it comes to making yarn, I have been through it all. At first I was operating on the spinning machine and doing the carding. Now I'm around in several locations, and I think it's more interesting than just operating the same machine all the time. I have several different tasks. Now I run the picking. I also do repairs of machinery, and that's interesting. If something breaks or stops, I help to get it started again. Then we have pressure on us because we cannot afford to have machinery standing still. We do smaller repairs ourselves in the departments. Bigger repairs are given to the two guys in the machine and tool workshop. If there is something seriously wrong, we must summon people from the factory supplying the machine.

In the picking we mix dyed wool and viscose fibres before it is spun into yarn. We also add oil to prepare for carding and spinning. When the yarn is finished it goes through cleansing and winding. With our part of the process, we don't see the finished result. It just becomes a yarn. But when we visit the weaving department and see the results there, we feel that we are contributing. We buy a lot of yarn too, from international spinning mills. What we produce here is just for ourselves, for our own production. We still produce many qualities, but we have reduced tremendously. How many qualities we have, I don't dare to say.

We are about fifteen to sixteen people working with yarn manufacturing. Now we produce on three shifts, at least in the carding and spinning. There are six people that share three shifts. It is a stable workforce here. Most of us have been here for many years: twenty, thirty and even forty. This creates a good working environment: we take our breaks together, but it is generally pretty hectic. I work from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon. The first of the three shifts starts at ten o'clock on Sunday evening and ends at six o'clock in the morning, then the new shift arrives at six and works till two in the afternoon, and then from two to ten till Friday evening. At night there are not more than two people working, and it is not very social. I think it's good for me to work only during the day.

I have no background in textiles, but I've been on a course at a woollen mill in Leeds, England. I went there with Frode Svarstad and a group of people, and there we learned some things. We brought some samples when we came back here, and it was very interesting. I have not taken a certificate and I regret that a little today. We were offered it not long after I started, and then it was all so new to me. So I said no. Now I've been here for a very long time. One learns from one's mistakes, naturally, and there is always something new. So I've learned quite a lot over time.

One of the carding machines was already here when I started. It is from 1970. We've replaced some ring spinners and the cleaning machines. It has become a little more modern. While there have been major changes in the other departments, in the weaving, dyeing and finishing the carding is probably more or less the same as it was when I started. In fact, I don't really know if it is possible to modernize the process of carding even more. But the picking has become better. Before we got the new equipment they had to use pitchforks. Now it automatic and piped in closed systems. But of course, there is still some heavy lifting. And dust. You see it clearly, all this dust when the sun shines through the windows.

We had over two hundred employees here when I started; now we are a lot fewer. We've been through some troubled times. The workload on each and every one of us gets bigger; it has to be like that to survive. But in some departments they have automated several of their operations. We are renowned for our quality. We can deliver small quantities. At least we did a lot of that before. Today we had to cut the smaller orders, because of costs. But it is a tough business; it's impressive that they manage. Production staff work hard and we try to do our best. And we try to get it right the first time. Making mistakes costs too much.