In our society where everyone is entitled to a fair go, why is it that road workers have to endure such abuse from an irate few.
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The activity in Belmore Road on Sunday afternoon would make an ideal subject for an academic to investigate.
We all know what it’s like to be held up in traffic, trapped in a long line of vehicles that finally crawls up to the apparent cause of it all: road works.
And there, behind barriers of steel – either in, or about to be in, a hole of some sort – are the road workers.
The puzzle teasing many drivers and making many angry is why such a large squad of workers is always on the scene. And worst of all, they seem to be just standing there, loafing about and doing nothing, as many motorists tell them.
In more ways than one, a road worker’s life is not a happy one.
“We cop it all the time – from everyone,” one road worker said yesterday.
“I have been in this job for nearly 30 years and nothing has changed in that time,” the road worker said.
“At first I used to get real angry. You get a lot chucked at you and after a while you let most of it go past you.”
Another road worker said: “Most of the time we accept the abuse and let it go. What else can we do? It’s not our fault that roads get badly damaged so they have to be well maintained.
“And even on a so-called easy day, when it is not too hot or cold or wet, working on the roads is not a soft job,” he said.
“But I reckon the real reason for the abuse we cop is that people are jealous.
"There is a comradeship in our ranks that you don’t find in many jobs and we are proud of doing things well.
“At the end of the day we have truly earned our pay.
“Of course there are some abuses we endure that I don’t tell my family about.
“But I can also think of the poor bloke who abused me: about the problems he might be facing alone, without the mates I have who can support me.”