Port of Hamburg, Hans-Juergen Mohr, linesman.

Joerg Otto Meier

Portaits
of people
and
big ships

Main menu

Port menu

German

Previous image

Next image

Hans-Juergen Mohr
Linesman, 33 years
October 1988

»Our boss isn’t bad really, I have to say that.
His name’s Werner. Most people are on
first-name terms with him. But he’s a pretty
tough customer, just the same.«

Excerpt: When things started going downhill here on the work front, people being made redundant and so on, I thought to myself, I’ll stand for the works council. Before that I’d been to some seminars to find out if that sort of thing was really in my line or not and then I thought, well, why not give it a go! So now I’m serving my first term on the works council. I’m away a lot and I have to go to a lot of seminars. You have to learn a fair bit, get the hang of all the regulations so that you understand what it’s all about. I thought it’d be easier, but it’s actually really hard. But I’m managing now. There are three of us, and if you’ve got the right people you can do alright, can’t you? We’re trying anyway.

Our boss isn’t bad really, I have to say that. His name’s Werner. Most people are on first-name terms with him. But he’s a pretty tough customer, just the same. Two years ago, for instance, we were up there having a moan. There weren’t any sliding windows in our boats. It was 40° C in there in the summer and you couldn’t see a thing in the fog. If you go and see the boss about it, he says, Ok, that’ll have to be seen to, I agree. But nothing gets done. Two years later, it was finally done because there was a bust pane. But just the same, when I’m in with the boss, I still get this feeling that there’s a barrier between us. So then you don’t really say everything you want to. You get cold feet the first few times. But it gets better after a while. ...