In the last few days, the Daily Mail has taken some pleasure in calling UK builders ‘woke’.
The story had already been met with a huge backlash, with the Samaritans leading the charge.
They tweeted: “Ridiculing construction workers for talking about their feelings only serves to further stigmatise mental health and self-care in an industry where people are three times more likely to take their own lives.”
This was echoed by others on Twitter.
Workers respond
Construction workers have also responded to the article.
Jamie, a construction worker at Hinkley Point, made the following powerful statement:
“I’ve got a message for the Mail newspaper about your story calling us all woke.
“We work long hours on a manual job for long stretches away from our family and friends. We have the highest suicide rate among male occupations.
“It’s not easy being away from your home and family but I guess you wouldn’t understand that.
“So if you think it’s a laugh to take the mick out of us about yoga, and meditation and other things, like our feelings and speaking to each other about our mental health, you can give your head a wobble and get in the real world.
“Mental health is massive and people need to speak to each other. Talking to each other saves lives.
“Forget your diverse culture wars and your woke narratives and we’ll carry on looking after each other here and our mental health at HPC.
“And we’ll carry on reading a proper newspaper as well, a working man’s newspapers. And we absolutely love a breakfast so get your facts right.”
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Reactions
There was a LOT of praise for his comments.
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Related: Mail says builders have ‘gone woke’ because they ‘talk about their feelings’