Excerpts 4

My hands, I noticed, were swollen and it was affecting my fingers, and they started to swell the next day, I returned to work doing the same thing. The lump on my right wrist got larger my hands could no longer grab the parts off the racks without pain, for three days, the problem continued I couldn’t take it any longer. I immediately went to my supervisor and I said, can I go home my wrist and hands are swollen, he said I could not go home. I told him again that I needed to go home my wrist and hands were swollen and hurting.

You are not leaving, he said with a strong voice, and if you walk out, I will fire you and you will never work in Blytheville again. He refused to let me go home, I immediately left the work area and went to the personnel office, my hands and fingers in pain. I then asked to see a doctor, the personnel office said it was all right to go see the doctor, for the lump had grown larger and was visible. On the top joint of my right wrist, my left wrist was just swollen, before I walked out of the office, the personnel director looked at me and said they had a doctor for me to see. He recommended that I go to see their doctor, he also provided me with directions, it was very clear to me that I couldn’t see another doctor of my choosing. On January 9, 1978, I saw the doctor the company recommended, and the company doctor treated my right wrist. He put it into a colles splint, and he gave me five days off work and some medicine to take, I returned to work as told by the doctor. When I got to work, my supervisor said, you are still working in the same department he didn’t care about my hand that was still wrapped. I only had one hand that was not wrapped, and I barely could use that hand, I was still hurting, and the workload still was affecting both hands and wrists. I hoped that he would have placed me into a better environment, I asked to be transferred, but it never happened neither did he want to talk about it. If we can’t talk about it, then let’s talk about my week’s pay that was never paid during my time off work, I said, and I did not get paid, not even my paycheck."