“In my previous job I was just a number on the floor,” says 53-year-old Cecilia Källqvist who has been a Warp Operator at Ludvig Svensson for two years.
“It can be very stressful if you aren’t seen, noticed and get the help you need,” she says.
Cecilia says things are very different since she came to Ludvig Svensson. It has something to do with an openness and a helpfulness in the factory.
And with Susann Dahl who is Warp Department Supervisor, Cecilia adds.
“She cares about people. She wants there to be a sense of community.”
Cecilia’s job in the Warping department involves preparing the hundreds of tiny threads that will run the length of a greenhouse climate screen. It’s work that demands fine finger work, patience and a careful attitude to the work.
In her free time Cecilia likes to knit and crochet and weave her way across the dance floor at danceband evenings at Boråshallen or other local venues.
Her work also requires a watchful eye once the rolls begin to spin and thread is shooting onto the boom.
And oddly, then comes a sort of calm aspect to her work, says Cecilia.
“In the warehouse work I’ve done previously I was always moving and packing things. Here I’ve actually had to learn to be calm and watch the thread,” she says.
And perhaps it’s this need for a warp operator to remain calm and watchful and take care of every thread that demands a sense that things are taken care of from the workplace itself.
“Family first,” says Cecilia, unprompted.
“If I have a problem at home, if mum and dad need are sick, it’s no problem here for me to take some time off and go and take care of it,” she says. “So I’m not here feeling anxious about it.”
“In my previous job, I wasn’t Cecilia. I was just one of 60 employees,” she says. “But here I’m seen and the shift will cover for me if there’s a crisis at home. That means a lot.”
Warp operator – What’s that?
We set up the loom or frame and double each thread roll. Our job is to knot the entire loom at the start of the process and then monitor the warp boom as up to six kilometers of thread are wound on from smaller rolls about the size of a biscuit tin.
The hundreds of rolls of thread are put in position by the yarn dresser. We double each roll, tying a knot between them, so that when one thread roll runs out, the next roll automatically takes its place. The yarn dresser will then replace any empty rolls.
The boom which receives the threads from the rolls is like the small spool of thread you might buy for sewing at home, but supersized. It is about the size of a three car tyres.
Eight warp booms will be taken up to a weaving machines. It’s essential that the yarn lies correctly aligned on the boom, with the right tension.
In total we are about 20 people on the two shifts and our hours are either 6am to 1.50pm or 1.40pm to 10.30pm.
Some of us are able to be just on daytimes, others work one shift for a period and then change to the other.