Your Stories
Find out how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis

November 2020
A written story submitted by Rose who works for a major insurer on the East Coast. I’m in my mid-thirties and work in a call

CLRTheory
This is an account of a professional actor/musician who became a greengrocer and of a surgeon who became an activist and cofounder of a charity.

Plastic Worker Stories
Patrick O’Hare is an anthropologist who studies recycling economies in South America. We are publishing Patrick’s translation of a transcript from an interview he conducted

Much has changed. Much has remained the same.
This story comes from a trade union organiser based in Glasgow and captures the huge protests in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, that took place

Keeping the Wheels Turning
Sam Sheppard works as a food courier for Deliveroo and Uber Eats in Glasgow and this is his story. It was one of those glorious

My lockdown: Hope over experience
Michelle Opit recently completed the Workers’ Stories Collage Workshop. She works in operations with Big Noise Govanhill and part of her role is to keep
Workers’ Stories
Here you’ll find an archive of all the stories published so far, from the earliest weeks and months of lockdown restrictions until now.
Blog
An ongoing series of critical reflections on your stories, the project so far, and what’s to come, written by the Workers’ Stories Project team and friends of the project.
What we’re looking for
Here you’ll find all the info you’ll need to submit your stories, some ideas to get started, and guidance on how the project will be archived for future generations.
Workers’ Stories Project Fundraiser
The Workers’ Stories Project has been the only Scottish attempt to record the transformation of social life during COVID-19 from a working-class perspective.
Now we need your help to continue archiving and sharing the experiences of Scottish workers during the pandemic.
Help us raise £3000 to create a website and a touring exhibition.
Your donations will allow us to make a permanent online home for the work we have collected and produce a touring exhibition after the pandemic to provide a space to share and reflect on workers’ stories of Covid-19.
Workers’ Stories Blog
Latest updates

Workers’ Exhibition- COP26
As historians and trade unionists of varying stripes, very early on in 2020 we were acutely aware how the narrative of the public health emergency

Archiving Workers’ Stories at the National Library of Scotland
As people across Scotland adjust to a significant lifting of restrictions over the coming weeks, the Workers’ Stories Project team is looking ahead to the

Workers Reunion – No Return to Normal
Lockdown disrupted work in all kinds of ways. The tasks you do at work changed. The way you do them changed. Hours and rotas were

The story is not the story
Of all the submissions to the Workers’ Stories archive, the one I have thought about the most is not, in fact, about Covid-19. It is

Giving Up The Ghost
Lock down has forced us to confront many of our own ghosts, the more we try to give them up, the more they cling on, tempting us with what our future could have been but in truth was never likely.

Reflections on 2020
We want to record the reality of life in the pandemic, and to reflect on how it has affected us all. So paint us a picture, write us a story, record us a video. All too often history is a record of the rich and the powerful. We’re making a record of how life was this year for real people.
Our Stories
Stories
We want to show future generations how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis in Scotland and encourage workers to bring their story to life using any method they think captures what working life is like during this historic moment.
Covid-19
We want to show future generations how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis in Scotland and encourage workers to bring their story to life using any method they think captures what working life is like during this historic moment.
Worker Experiences
We want to show future generations how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis in Scotland and encourage workers to bring their story to life using any method they think captures what working life is like during this historic moment.
Find out how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis

We want to show future generations how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis in Scotland and encourage workers to bring their story to life using any method they think captures what working life is like during this historic moment.
We want to show future generations how workers experienced the COVID-19 crisis.
Your Stories
Latest.

November 2020
A written story submitted by Rose who works for a major insurer on the East Coast. I’m in my mid-thirties and work in a call

CLRTheory
This is an account of a professional actor/musician who became a greengrocer and of a surgeon who became an activist and cofounder of a charity.

Plastic Worker Stories
Patrick O’Hare is an anthropologist who studies recycling economies in South America. We are publishing Patrick’s translation of a transcript from an interview he conducted

Much has changed. Much has remained the same.
This story comes from a trade union organiser based in Glasgow and captures the huge protests in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, that took place

Keeping the Wheels Turning
Sam Sheppard works as a food courier for Deliveroo and Uber Eats in Glasgow and this is his story. It was one of those glorious

My lockdown: Hope over experience
Michelle Opit recently completed the Workers’ Stories Collage Workshop. She works in operations with Big Noise Govanhill and part of her role is to keep