94-96 Cornell University

From late 1994 until the end of 1996, I worked exclusively at Cornell University in their shops. First I worked for 5 months at the Residence Life Shop. What a cool place that was. There were two or three of each trade, carpenter, electrician, laborer, plumber and pipefitter, as well as the shop foreman who was an old timer plumber. We worked together maintaining all the living quarters at Cornell. That included the dorms, as well as the cooperative houses, special living houses, (Native American, music, environmental), campus apartments, and some of the Greek housing as well. If you have never been to Cornell, you don’t know what you’re missing! Some of these places are absolutely stunning, some crafted with custom woodworking, waterfalls, and elaborate studios or labs. In the environmental house, they were allowed pets, so you never knew what would be lurking in a terrarium or cage. You also were working closer to the students than you would in the academic buildings. One time, I was repairing a shower handle in a tub. The resident was so fascinated by how it worked that he stepped into the tub with me. I quickly stepped out. Later I laughed thinking how I would probably be the first female to ever get fired for inappropriate interactions with a student! Unfortunately my older sister needed a hysterectomy and I volunteered to go to California to help her afterwards. I spent 10 days there, taking care of her and my nieces, but when I returned, they laid me off. Lessons learned—ask for a layoff before any vacations, because they will just lay you off afterwards! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was rehired in the pipe shop two months later. I was assigned to Jose R., really great guy, good worker and mechanic, with a heavy Puerto Rican accent. He would assign me to small construction projects, like lab remodels or relocations. I liked working with the scientists to figure out what services they needed and then figure out how to get them there. Many of them would show me what they were doing, like making micro-slices of sheep’s retinas and why it was important to have continuous air flow to the anti-vibration pad under the microscope. In late October, I had been trying very hard to lose the baby fat from my eldest, but had stalled. I talked to one of the trainers (as I repaired his heating) who recommended that I do different workouts and offered me the use of their row boats which are in pools that have moving water to really make you sweat! As it turned out, I was pregnant, so back came the weight! By the time I was 3 months along I had gained back 30 lbs. I had to resort to wearing overalls. In the beginning of January, I told Mark R. I was pregnant, but that the doctor said I could keep working up until my 8th month. I though he was okay with it, but I didn’t know that his wife had recently miscarried. I worked along for the next week or so, until one day we had a winter flood. I was working alone in a penthouse. I had a beeper, but had to find a phone to return pages. I had talked to the shop a few times requesting a pump that I needed. At noon, my husband had called the shop to tell them our home county was in a state of Emergency. At 3, they sent over the apprentice to tell me to go home and not to even stop to punch out at the shop. By then the roads were nearly impassable. About 2 miles from home, my car finally couldn’t go any further. Using a nearby house’s phone, I called my neighbor who had a 4 wheel drive. He informed me that my husband was home. Until then, I knew nothing about what was going on. This was before cell phones were in common use. Well, I able to get a loaner car while mine was being repaired and went to work on Monday. I asked Mark if they were going to provide me with a cell phone or if I had to buy my own. His reply was, “If you don’t like it here, you can leave” Rather than argue the point, I went upstairs to customer service where I asked if Cornell had an agreement with any cell phone companies as I wanted to buy one. Mark’s secretary overheard me and she told them about me not getting contacted by my husband during the emergency. I didn’t think anything of it, but the next thing I knew Mark is firing me and telling me to pack my tools and get the hell out. Somehow, he got the idea that I had gone over his head and complained; which I hadn’t. Once I got him calmed down, he realized that and I went back to work. For three days--until I was handed a layoff check. This is how long it takes to get a check cut at Cornell. Shaking my head I took the check, not knowing if I would ever work there again. Also not knowing if it was the cell phone or baby that made them do it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had my beautiful little girl in July, and by October, I was back working in the pipe shop. I was assigned to work with a sprinkler crew pulling on 2’ pipe wrenches and hauling up 3-4” pipe. One time I was in a lawyer’s office and the wrench slipped hitting my chest causing milk to spurt. Breastfeeding and pipefitting don’t mesh well. After 3 weeks, I had enough and asked for a layoff. I stayed home until she was 8 months old and I think we were better for it.

TVA Watts Bar & Bechtel

So far I have been writing this blog as a memoir. By describing events that happened long ago, I am sure some looked different through the rose colored glasses of time. Today I want to describe the job I was just on at the TVA Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Tennessee. I had gotten myself into a bit of financial difficulty by paying off my daughter’s student loan as a graduation gift and therefore depleting my savings account. I did this because the company I was working for had picked up a big project in Corning. I was going to be working steady for the next year, or so I thought! When the project was delayed, I found myself unable to pay the dual mortgages and bills that I can normally cover with unemployment and savings. I am old enough to retire, I am tired. I didn’t want to have to work out of town while my baby was a senior at high school. There is too much to do here, but away I went. MY BA Brad W. is totally awesome. I call him; he looks around and finds me a job. This time it was for a lower wage/benefit package and was only guaranteed for 48 hours weekly, but it beat UIC. Since it was supposed to last 3-4 months I decided to go to Sarasota first to fix some things there before the winter rental season. After a week there, I drove back up to TN. I had called around and found a cabin on Watts Bar Lake at the Piney Point Resort to rent for $550 monthly. That was the best part of this whole trip. Due to the last minute nature of this trip and the uncertainty of the duration, I had my dog Jamie with me. I had found a clean, quiet, comfortable place to stay. Jamie was able to be on his cable all day and then run with the camp dog after I got home. They would swim, play tug of war and chase squirrels until exhausted. The other good thing about the area was really good BBQ places. I mostly cooked at home, but would treat myself to a weekly dinner out. I would get take out so that one dinner lasted 2-3 meals. About the job…not so good! I had issues with the way things are run at Watts Bar. I am an experienced Nuke worker. I am good at following the rules, adhering to procedure, and am never afraid to stop if unsure to clarify any questions or ambiguities. As usual, initial training took a week to get through. My friend/fitters, CL and Mark G were also there. It is always nice to have someone to talk with about the strangeness of a new place. I found I had a really hard time understanding what people said. It wasn’t just the accent; I love the sweet Southern drawl. It was that the majority of the men had a mouth full of chew. Between the spitting and the garbled words I was clueless! The next week I went into the plant and was assigned to a crew. Our job was very simple. We were to weld into place the bumper pads that would guide the bumpers on the four steam generators, so that when the system started up and the generators expanded due to the heat, it would still be properly aligned. I had always worked maintenance, not new construction at nuclear plants, but still I couldn’t believe how different the procedures were at TVA. Normally everything is laid out to eliminate worker/human error. At TVA…not so much. Normally your foreman assigns duties and responsibilities daily. We had a crew of six who pretty much did whatever they felt like doing. Some disappeared for hours at a time. Mostly we sat around waiting for QC or our field engineer to give us necessary information to do the job. The drawings were terrible, old and hard to read. There was one drawing for all 4 generators, even though they were not identical, so that in each case you had to re-identify each bumper pad. There also had to be a certain measurement between pad and bumper to allowing for expansion. This wasn’t communicated to us until after we had taken down the pads, which weigh between 500-1000 lbs. each, so we had to pick them up again to get measurements, and then lower them again to clean and prep for welding. It was decided, after days of sitting around, that 75% of the components would have to be brought out of the plant and machined to fit specifications. During my third week I was sent to get rigging qualifications. TVA/Bechtel mouth the nuclear safety rules, but the guys in the field just aren’t following through. When I learned we were going about things all wrong, I went back into the plant to do it right, but no one would listen to me. They would do lifts without pre-planning on the lift or safety. There would be no barricades to prevent people from walking below the suspended load. It was absurd and dangerous. I finally refused to put my name on any more lifts. I simply assigned myself the duties of safety monitor, so that if things went wrong at least no one was below us. It was only a matter of time once the components were sent out to be worked on, but I was laid off after the 5th week along with many others. I am still mad at myself for leaving without telling these people what I think of their plant. They offer you an exit interview, but how do you express in a few words that their whole mindset and procedure is geared to frustration and failure. No one had looked at our project for over 20 years while the plant’s future was uncertain. No one knew that the specifications were so far off that major reworking would have to be done. Despite knowing that preheat for welding had to be done, no one made arrangements for it. No one made sure rigging was being done properly. These fitters I worked with really did want to do the job right, but that isn’t going to happen when the contractor is just there to make money. They hire and layoff monthly because they are paid a bonus on each new hire. When your workforce is just numbers to the contractor, it creates an atmosphere of apathy. Responsibility flowed down to the worker who had nowhere else to go with it. The Supervisor would push to have things done no matter what, so the guys I worked with just did it and hoped they wouldn’t get caught. If they pushed back, there would be sighs of disgust and comments about incompetency. Supervisors talk safety, but don’t follow through with it. Once again, best day on the job…my last one!

1994 Toshiba and Milliken

I was finally back on the work list at the Hall! While I had been off for awhile I was finally working steady. In 1994, I worked two separate shutdowns at the Toshiba Plant in Horseheads, interrupted by a two month stint at Milliken Station which is a coal power plant on the west side of Cayuga Lake north of Ithaca. Our job was to replace the coal slurry piping. Most of this system is 10-12” pipe. Some of it is fiberglass and some is carbon steel. Both of them offer different challenges. Both are heavy and awkward to handle. Rigging is difficult especially because there was so much other piping still in place. To lift the pipe you use chain falls and slings. For you non-fitters, this entails climbing way up high to hang the chain falls. Then you pull on the chain for hours it seems. I have never measured it but it can take 30 minutes of pulling to lower the chain 30’. After that you have to pull it 30 more minutes to raise it 30’! In addition to this fun, I was literally covered in coal dust. I would have layers of clothing, bra, tee-shirt, sweatshirt, coveralls; but when I got home at night I had to strip standing on the deck. My skin was still covered in grime. I would run to the shower so that I could pick up my baby without getting her dirty. I was so exhausted that after making dinner, doing laundry, and bathing the baby, I would frequently fall asleep reading to her before bed. As the saying goes, the two best days of a job are the first and the last. I was thrilled the day I got laid off from there. Toshiba was much easier physically. There was still a lot of climbing but they had catwalks overhead that really helped getting around. It was also much cleaner. The challenges were more mental than physical. Some of the piping was metric and used a different International pipe thread compared to American (NPT) thread and standard sizes. We also worked directly with Japanese engineers which sometimes caused comical situations. One time I was sent with another journeyman up a three section scaffold to change some piping. I looked down to see the engineer arguing with my foreman. Apparently he had to explain to the engineer that when they asked for two “men” to do a job I counted as a “man”. The engineer was appalled that he had offended me. The next day he insisted I take some beautiful gifts from Japan as an apology. Mostly the Japanese seemed to really enjoy their time in the US although many missed their families and the food they loved. Some of our members had a hard time understanding them, but I figured their English was much better than our Japanese.

1993 Cornell Pipe Shop

I was finally working at the trade again, although I was laid off the first 5 months of 1993. I had a 2 year old daughter who was being taken care of by her paternal grandmother. This woman is a saint! She has always taken care of children and seemed to have 2 or more underfoot at all times. She was also taking care of her mother in law who was very ill as well as checking in on her own mother who lived in the house behind her. In between all this, she cooked and canned and knitted. I don’t think I would have been able to stay working if I hadn’t had her support. I didn’t get another job until May of 1993. It was at the cheese factory in Campbell again. It lasted about 6 weeks and to be honest wasn’t really memorable. Some jobs are just jobs. Immediately afterwards I was hired on for the Cornell University pipe shop. My old foreman, Mark R, had requested me! I love working at Cornell for the pipe shop. Everyday is different. The buildings at Cornell are either super new and hi-tech or incredibly old, but beautiful. Each one presents its own challenge. One job I did was to run sprinkler lines in one of the oldest buildings, Morrill Hall. Because they didn’t want to change the exterior of the building, they had built rooms inside rooms, leaving a 2 foot space around the perimeter that was not protected in case of fire. I found all kinds of old newspapers and strange objects back there! I also did some work in the Law School Building which is Myron Taylor Hall. I was working with Maynard R. an old timer who knew every nook and cranny of the campus especially the dining facilities. We would pull into the parking area behind Hughes Dining Hall every morning at 9:30. The cafeteria ladies all loved Maynard and would pile our plates high and the bill would always be $2! I swear I gained 10 lbs working with him. We earned our breakfasts, I promise. They had renovated the chilled water system in the building about 5 years before, but seemed to continually be having problems with the new system. We were supposed to cut into some of the main lines and install valves, so we could flush the system. We did that and it didn’t seem to help some of the rooms. So we started flushing each individual unit. As I looked at the unit piping, I realized that the strainer had been installed backwards allowing the system to clog more easily than it should. Well, I had to go to talk to all the engineers and point out the problem. They agreed with me. It was decided that I would get to go to each and every unit in the building and trouble shoot it. This meant flushing each coil, checking each strainer, and making sure everything was working properly. That gave me 6 months of work all in one building. I made so many people happy who had never had A/C that worked properly before. From secretaries to lawyers, they all loved to watch me work. Many were fascinated that a woman was doing the job, but most were just happy to get cool! So happy that they even drafted my will for me for free! But as all good jobs do this one ended and I was looking for work again.

1992 Three Shutdowns

We can skip over the rest of 1991 and the first 8 months of 1992 because my BA wouldn’t put me to work. I had told the vet I was working for that I would probably be going to work in construction in May or June. So he hired my replacement. Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to keep us both. I was back on unemployment struggling to make ends meet. Finally in September I got a call to go to a one day shutdown at Cargill Salt in Watkins Glen. Talk about a rude awakening! Once again my boots were stiff and my clothes didn’t feel right. I was awkward and nervous and very unsure of myself. The plant itself is fascinating, but all the piping is ancient and dirty and so corroded that taking anything apart is almost impossible with just tools. You have to use a cutting torch. Well, I had only used a cutting torch a few times and was not very good with it, but I managed. They also had a very unique elevator. It was basically 2 parallel circular ropes with ladder rungs spreading them about 18” apart on a huge pulley. You stepped on tools in one hand, not in your back pocket, and rode it up or down to the next floor. Absolutely terrifying! Somehow I managed to get through the day without killing myself or anyone else. Next I was called for a 3 week shutdown at a cheese factory in Campbell, NY about an hour from the house. We were working 60-70 hours a week and I missed my baby. Luckily I was working as a fitter for a great guy, Jimmy W. We were socket welding stainless steel lines for an ammonia system. The fumes are noxious and both of us had headaches daily. Everyday he would greet me with a big grin and say, “Candy, little Girl?” He would play Ray Stevens tapes all day, especially “Hello Margaret” which is a very funny song about an obscene phone caller. He developed a brain tumor and died a few years later. We lost a good one there. After three weeks, I was feeling much more comfortable with the tools. I was ready to keep working. After a short layoff, I was sent to yet another shutdown at the Cornell Heating Plant. This job was to greatly influence my career. The general foreman was Mark R. We had worked on the same job at Biotech, but not really together, so he didn’t know what to expect from me. After a short time though, he decided I was going to make it. He liked my work ethics and encouraged me to learn as much from each experience as I could. Even though I was laid off when the shut down was over, he told me he would hire me in an instant any time he could. It felt so good to have someone compliment me that way. Construction people tend to be pretty straight forward about pointing out your mistakes and weaknesses and not so good at supporting each other. You have to develop a pretty thick skin and have strong self-esteem to keep going some days.

1991 Pregnancy and the Pipefitter

By September 1990, I was 5 months pregnant, but not really showing. I had wicked morning sickness that lasted all day. I couldn’t eat anything without losing it shortly afterwards. You haven’t lived until you have puked into the urinal of a portapotty! There were no working toilets in the building and while my boss had told me I could take the job truck down to the corner store, I usually couldn’t make it there in time. I also christened a few floor drains. The job was working 5-9’s, so every Monday morning I would make the 2 hour drive from home. I would actually drive with a bag stretched across the steering wheel because every time I saw road kill, I would lose it. In the Rochester Local, they have a tradition that if there is a local guy on the bench and a traveler working, the local hand has the right to bump the traveler. One Thursday my boss came to me to tell me this was the case. As the last traveler on the job, I would be getting laid off on Monday. I had a scheduled doctor’s appointment on Monday and would’ve been late, so I asked to be laid off Friday instead. I also told him why I had so many doctor appointments. Then I approached the Steward on the job. “We have a problem with my pay.” I said. “What do you mean?” Said Bagsy (Pat B) “Don’t first year apprentices get 50% of scale?” “Yeah, but you’re a journey man” “True, but I’ve been carrying a first year in my belly the whole job!” Being an Italian family guy, he was thrilled and delighted for me. However, when I went to go climb into the lift to do my job, he was all protective and concerned. I assured him I was only one day more pregnant than I had been the day before and everything was fine. The next day the whole job took up a collection for me and then took me out for a “Peggy got fucked” party. In their own way, these guys can be so sweet! In contrast, the next time I was pregnant, five years later, my foreman laid me off AFTER I told him, but that is a story for another time. So there I was 5 months pregnant and unemployed. My doctor, who was a wonderful man, said I could work up until my 8th month as long as I didn’t climb ladders or carry anything over 20 lbs. Well, there is no light duty in pipefitting, so I applied for NYS disability. Try explaining to a beaurocrat that No I can’t work right up until my due date. I don’t sit at a desk. I have a hard, very physically demanding job. I wasn’t very successful because the day I came home from the hospital all government help stopped. Luckily I was able to pick up the odd bartending job, and was on the WIC program for formula. I had developed toxemia and had to have my daughter by c-section 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Talk about squeezing a nickel until it squeaked! My BA,Roy D, who didn’t like women in the trade in the first place and definitely didn’t think mothers should work, put me on the bottom of the hiring list, even though I hadn’t worked in our local for over a year. I didn’t work in the trade again until September 1992. I was able to get a job working for a veterinarian as I am a NYS licensed Vet Tech, but the money wasn’t as good and I wasn’t adding anything to my pension or healthcare accounts.

Webster Wegmans Fall 1990

So apparently my inability to keep my mouth shut had cost me a job. Unfortunately, I never did learn how to let a boss tell me to do something incorrectly or unsafe. Sometimes it is just a personal preference how to install pipe, but other times it’s just wrong. It is a pleasure to work with or under someone who is knowledgeable, but is still willing to talk out the job. My business agent told me Jim S-ski had told him that I was being laid off because I was leaving early, which I did twice because I had things to take care of before night school and I told my foreman who obviously didn’t tell Jim. Also that my partner Rick C, who he also laid off, was stealing from the company. That was a lie. I was still driving most days to work. Rick never brought a lunch pail, so if he was stealing he was putting it in his pockets! Contractors get away with making rash and unfounded accusations, but not pressing charges. It’s like fighting a shadow! Plus they never fire you, they lay you of due to lack of work, so sometimes you don’t even know they think you did something wrong. To be honest I took advantage of not working for the first time in years and proceeded to enjoy life. I had started dating my 2nd husband Ken. We spent weekends renovating his family cottage on Keuka Lake. In May 1990, he moved into my house. I set the ground rules by having him pay a share of household expenses. He paid the electric and phone bills which totaled about $300 month. In retrospect, it was quite a deal, room and board for $75 a week. I paid for all the groceries, the mortgage, insurance and taxes. I also went off birth control. I was 32 and wanted children, but not a husband! There was no work locally according to my BA, Roy D, but he sent me up to another Wegmans in Webster. This is in Local 13’s jurisdiction, so the pay scale was higher plus we were working 45 hours weekly. The extra money was greatly appreciated and desperately needed. My mother happened to have a cottage near Sodus Bay about 15 minutes from the job, so I was able to stay with her during the week. The job itself was great. I had experience brazing and knew the piping system from my first job. The guys were great and treated me well. I never told anyone, except for one guy, that I was pregnant until the very end. I only told him because he kept asking me out. Even after I told him, he kept asking. Some guys really can’t take No for an answer. I really thought it was a nice way to bookend my apprenticeship with Wegmans as my first job as an apprentice and as a journeyman.