Rumen beater
Rumen beater is a term no longer in use today for dock workers who at times performed work that was also hazardous to health. This activity has died out today.
In seafaring, rumen was not understood to mean the stomach of a ruminant , but rather untanned, raw hides and skins of animals. As a preservative during seafaring, salt was used for curing , which stopped the rot. Excess salt had to be removed from the hides for overland transport.
This work was done by the rumen beater: the salt was mechanically removed by hitting the skins on grates. The work was unpopular as dock workers were easily identified by their intense smell. In return, they received a dirt allowance of 15% in addition to their normal wages, known in Hamburg as Schietgeld .
Unloading soot in paper sacks without providing protective clothing had a surcharge of 40%, so it was probably even more unpleasant.
Web links
- Pictures of this activity in the port museum
- Framework collective agreement for port workers in German seaport companies, valid from April 1st, 1992 in the version dated September 13th, 2001 (PDF) (98 kB)
- Hamburger Abendblatt: Ransenklopper - It stank terribly
Individual evidence
- ^ Dirt money catalog for the framework collective agreement for the dock workers of the German seaport companies from January 1, 1980, issued by the Union of Public Services, Transport and Traffic, page 6, item 15: Skins and skins, wet