Women's Work

March/April 2010

Extreme temperatures, heavy equipment, grimy scrap—these conditions don't faze the women who are succeeding in scrapyard operations careers.

By Diana Mota

You'll find certain similarities in the operations of just about any scrapyard. Workers pick up scrap from suppliers; weigh and inspect incoming material; move, process, and sort the scrap by hand or with equipment; package the processed material; then transport it to the buyer. Another thing yards have in common is that most—but not all—of the people doing this work are men.

The women in scrap operations seem to keep a low profile. They took their jobs for the same reasons men do, they say: They need the work, or they like working outdoors and with big equipment. Also like many of their male counterparts, they say they would never swap what they do for a desk job. Scrap spoke with several female scrapyard workers about their experiences. Though some have had to overcome challenges they attribute to working in the male-dominated scrapyard environment, most say they're happy and thriving.

A Foot in the Door
These women took a variety of routes to their scrap careers, just like their male colleagues did. Some got their start through a personal connection. Five years ago, Agota Gyuris, 32, was working part time at a gas station frequented by Stuart Block, the owner of Cash's Scrap Metal & Iron Co. (St. Louis). Block approached her with an offer to try something different—a full-time job at one of his scrapyards—and the idea piqued her interest. "I've always had somewhat odd jobs," she says. Brenda Moreno, 44, is married to the shredder manager at the Tennessee Valley Recycling yard in Decatur, Ala. Her husband recommended her for a paint specialist position there, for which she was hired. Teri Eylat, 38, first heard about Ocala Recycling (Ocala, Fla.) from a friend of her mother's who was familiar with the company. The family atmosphere sounded appealing, she said. Even though she knew nothing about the scrap industry, she knew that's where she wanted to work. "They weren't hiring at first," she recalls, but "I was very persistent."

Others tried a variety of white-collar and blue-collar jobs before finding their way to scrap. Amber Ledbetter, 28, began her professional life as a legal assistant, then ran through a gauntlet of jobs, including catering, working at golf courses and race tracks, and installing gutters with her father. Ledbetter heard about a job at All Scrap Metals (Kenner, La.) from a friend who knew the general manager. "I had just finished relief work [after Hurricane Katrina], and the idea of having a job where I get to wear steel-toed boots and a hard hat made me happy," she says. She started out in purchasing, and just recently she began working in the yard as well.

In contrast, Anna Huntley, 58, had established her career as a truck driver long before she began driving for Utah Metal Works (Salt Lake City). Truck driving wasn't much of a stretch, given that her father and six of her seven brothers also did it for a living, she says. Further, "the pay was good. It's the best money I've been able to make." She began working for the scrap company nine years ago as a temporary worker, and she liked it so much she has stayed ever since. She travels about 300 miles a day picking up materials in the Salt Lake area and bringing them to the scrapyard.

Once they started in scrap, the women say they've stayed because they like the work, the environment, and how the company treats them. Ledbetter thinks her parents might have influenced her choice of career: "Papa always worked outside, and Mom is mechanically inclined," she explains. As a result, "I love big machines and motors," she says, and "this is the perfect opportunity" to learn about them. Eylat says she has "always been comfortable running different equipment." Before coming to Ocala, she worked as a sales estimator for a granite facility in Virginia Beach, Va. "I've never had a desk job," she says. "I've always had a job that you would find mostly men working in." For Gyuris, "being able to learn about the machines really caught my attention," as did the whole scrap recycling process. "I enjoy seeing [material] come in, processing it as fast as we can, and then shipping it out."

Huntley says her tenure at Utah Metal Works is the longest she has worked for any one company. "My bosses are great," she says, and the company "is very good to me." She adds that "it's a family-oriented business—they know family." Eylat has similar praise for Ocala. "I've accomplished a lot working with this company. They appreciate everything I do for them."

Career Advancement
Several of the women have found opportunities to move up since they began their scrap careers. Gyuris started in 2004 as a laborer at Cash's main yard, sorting metals and moving materials around the yard using a dump truck or front-end loader. In 2007 she switched to running the scale house, then she moved to the company's river terminal to operate a shear and later a spotter truck that moves trailers within the yard. About a year ago, she and a co-worker became the supervisors of the river terminal's 16-person staff. When that co-worker left, she became the sole supervisor. Helping her on her way up through the ranks has been the support of her boss and her employees, she says. "My boss has been 100-percent confident in me in everything I do."

Moreno progressed from painting to several other duties, such as foam-filling tires, moving material around the yard, processing nonferrous scrap, and writing inventory reports. Now a warehouse supervisor, she still has many of her previous responsibilities, but she also supervises five men, runs safety committee meetings, and conducts OSHA training. With four years of high school Spanish lessons under her belt, she sometimes interprets for Spanish-speaking workers and customers. "We all wear several different hats," Moreno says.

Eylat began working for Ocala in 2005 as an office assistant, but she knew from day one that she wanted to work in the transportation department, she says. "I made that very, very clear." She spent six months in her administrative position before becoming the facility's weighmaster for a year. Today she still runs the scales, but she also serves as the transportation supervisor, assists the dispatch manager, mentors new hires, and runs the weekly safety meetings. Ledbetter, meanwhile, just started working in the yard in December as needed and is getting certified on the forklift.

On-the-job training, effort, and showing an interest in learning have helped them move ahead, these workers say. "I didn't know the words ferrous and nonferrous before starting here," Ledbetter says. As part of her purchasing duties, she worked with the mechanic to order parts, and she used that as an opportunity to learn. "I started pulling out old files and asking questions: 'What's this? What's that? I don't know how that works; show me.'" Gyuris took a similar approach. "When I first started as a laborer, I followed one of the other supervisors, and I spent a lot of [my own] time with another person learning to operate machines," she says. "She was so interested in metal—ferrous and nonferrous," Block recalls. "She begged to learn more. She was just like a sponge; she just couldn't get enough."

For her transition from office to operations, Eylat spent three weeks in the yard getting "down and dirty," she says. "I knew nothing. I had to learn to change a tire, change oil." The result, she says, is that "I know what these guys do, and it's hard work." The hardest part, she adds, was earning her commercial driver's license. Today she drives roll-off trucks as needed, and she's also trained to use the forklift as well as a Caterpillar loader. Gaining those skills "was absolutely rewarding," she adds.

Some of those interviewed want to continue to move ahead: Eylat would like to move up into management; Moreno thinks she'd like to become more involved in the safety aspect of her job. Gyuris has had offers to move to a sales position, but she has declined them. "At this time, I want to keep doing what I'm doing," she says. As for Huntley, she says "I'd like to keep driving trucks until I'm ready to retire."

Physical and Attitudinal Barriers
Though most scrapyard equipment and work processes were undoubtedly designed with men in mind, the women report few, if any, physical difficulties. After all, both men and women come in all shapes and sizes. Gyuris says she's never run into a situation she couldn't handle. "I feel 100 percent that I can do this job the same way a man can do it. I have 10 cranes, and I can operate everything. If I can't do something [by hand], then I get a machine to do it."

Height can affect a worker's ability to reach the controls or see out of certain equipment, and several of the women interviewed are indeed shorter than average. Gyuris notes that, at just 5 foot 2 inches tall, operating the yard's cable crane is less comfortable for her than the other pieces of equipment. "It's harder for me—since I'm shorter than the average operator—to reach the controls," she says. Ledbetter is similarly short in stature, at 5 foot 3 inches, but equipment and safety gear have not been a problem. "I have my gloves, my pink hard hat, and these amazing steel-toed cowboy boots," she says. Huntley drives a 10-wheeler semitractor, and at 5 foot 4 inches, she does have to make sure the seat is all the way forward. This is only a problem when she has to share a truck, she says. She also used to find hand-tarping truckloads challenging, she says. "Those tarps are heavy. Sometimes I could not lift them up on the truck." But a couple of years ago, Utah Metal Works replaced her older truck with a truck with an automatic tarp. Her boss saw tarping systems on another company's truck and liked the concept, she says. "Now I just stand beside the truck and pull levers." Height isn't an issue for Eylat, who's 5 foot 11 inches—"taller than most of the guys I work with." She doesn't have a problem using any of the equipment and feels confident in her abilities to perform her job, she says.

What about barriers caused by the attitudes of supervisors, colleagues, and direct reports? The women say these, too, are minimal. For the most part, they feel accepted as part of the team. Eylat was the first female supervisor at Ocala, and in the beginning it was hard for some people in the yard to address her as a supervisor, she says. "They weren't used to dealing with a woman, but when they really see what I do, they know I'm capable." She now feels 100-percent accepted and comfortable working in the yard. "Everybody respects me," she says. "I don't ever feel like I'm outnumbered." Anyway, she says, "I'm used to working in male-dominated jobs. I used to help my husband in the roofing business." Ledbetter also calls her male colleagues "very respectful" and says she feels accepted in the yard. "They all got to know me before I got out in the yard," she points out, "so I don't know if that makes a difference."

Moreno says her approach is that "you have to be treated like one of the guys. You have to try and hold your own. Don't expect any favors." Respect is important as well. "As long as you have respect for them, they'll have respect for you." The result is that "I've had no problem fitting in," Moreno says. "Maybe I'm not heard out as eagerly—just sometimes," she says, such as when she's addressing maintenance issues. But for the most part, she doesn't feel as if being female interferes with her job.

When Gyuris started at Cash's six years ago, one co-worker was less than collegial to her. "He didn't want to talk to me or answer my questions," she says. It took a year before he spoke to her in a "normal" way—and Gyuris then asked him about his previous attitude. "He said, 'I did not think this was a good idea. I didn't think you were going to last, but you proved yourself, and I see you can do it.'" The turnaround made her feel proud of what she had accomplished. "It's just a good feeling," she says.

Since then, she says, she's had no problem fitting in. "I've never had to deal with anyone doubting me, and I don't ever think about the fact that I'm the only woman here. I get the same respect as everyone else." Occasionally a customer will question having a woman in the yard, she notes, but "it just makes me work a little harder to show them a woman can do it." The best advice she received was about trust, she says: "Trust myself; trust my judgment; and trust the guys I work with—and value their opinion." Block admits that he had some initial concerns about Gyuris being the only woman in the yard, but "she's definitely handled herself. She's learned to master her profession. I would like to have five other Agotas."

Over the 17 years Huntley has been behind the wheel of a truck, she has seen attitudes change for the better, she says. In the past, "I've run across men who think I shouldn't be here," she says. Such men give most women, including her, a hard time, she says, but "I just ignore it." (Even her husband would prefer her to be "in an office nice and safe, but he knows where I'm happy," Huntley says.) Today, "it's not very often I run across a man who is belligerent with me, or a Mr. Know-It-All." As people get to know her and what she can do, their attitudes change, she says. She doesn't believe that her sex affects her performance, nor does she believe she gets off easy because of it. "I don't get any special treatment that I know of."

Huntley says she has never had a problem with the attitudes of those at Utah Metal Works, though she does note one disparity: "All of the other guys get uniforms. I don't." She admits she hasn't pursued the issue with her managers because she assumes the company doesn't have a woman's uniform. "I have been issued men's uniforms in other jobs, and they don't fit right." The lack of a uniform does cost her money on clothes, she says. "The jobs I'm working on are pretty dirty." Mark Lewon, president of UMW and Huntley's supervisor, says he has no problem asking his supplier about uniforms for her. "This is the first time I've heard about uniforms," he says, but he adds it's a "double-edged sword" because she can wear lightweight clothes in the summer while the men have to wear the darker, heavier uniforms.

Huntley still feels that, in general, women don't get paid as much as men for the work they do—an assertion backed by data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which found that in 2008 the median salary for a woman working full time was about 80 percent of the median salary for a man.

Some of these women say they might be better at some aspects of their jobs than their male colleagues. Moreno says she may understand TVR's customers better, adding that she takes more time to explain things to them. Eylat also thinks being female helps her deal with customers better. Ledbetter asserts that she's more cautious and careful with the equipment than her male colleagues, but she wonders whether it's because she's a woman or because she's just naturally a detail-oriented person. Lewon agrees that scrapyards could benefit from a woman's perspective, but he cautions making judgments based on sex: "You could end up with stereotypes."

Following in Their Footsteps
These workers are living proof that women can succeed in scrap operations careers. Gyuris cautions any women who might be interested in this path that she must like the outdoors and a rugged environment as well as the equipment. "If the woman doesn't mind getting a little dirty, sweaty, and grease on her hands, it's something well worth the while," Ledbetter says. "You kind of have to jump into it." Eylat wishes more women would do just that. "Don't ever let anybody tell you [that] you can't do it because it's a man's job," she says. "If you want to do it, you will work hard to accomplish it." Gyuris seconds that advice. "Go for it," she says. "Find a company that you like, and talk to someone" about working in scrap.

Most of the men Moreno works with are open to the idea of more women in the yard, she says. "A lot of them ask, 'Can my wife or cousin apply?'" She believes there are opportunities for more women to enter the field. "A lot of it is just material handling," she says. "If you're safe about it, you're not going to get hurt. I believe a woman could prosper in this field." Before she started at TVR, she says, "I never imagined that a woman could do this work, but I did it." To any men who are still skeptical, Eylat and Huntley just ask for a chance to prove themselves. "Give us a break," Eylat says. "We can do it. Just give us one shot." Huntley adds, "We've got kids to support, we've got families, so let us do our work."

Both Block and Lewon note they get few female applicants for operations jobs. Culture might be a factor at his yard, Lewon says. "We tend to have a very Latino work force," he explains, "and that tends to make for a very macho work force" that might not attract Latina women. He says he would have no problem hiring more women, however. "If my daughter wants to come into the business, she's more than welcome," he adds, "but she's got the same requirements I give everyone else. [Women] have to be willing to work as hard as anybody else is, and that means getting dirty." •

Diana Mota is associate editor of Scrap.