Biotech Honor and Ethics

I worked on this building for over 18 months, so there are lots of stories to tell. For the most part this was the job that let me spread my wings. I had coworkers foremen and a superintendent who were able to see beyond my gender and just treat me as an apprentice. After I stopped fitting for Joe S., I worked with another apprentice, Howard, who didn’t get it or the program. Together with the foreman, Dave T. we were supposed to install hangers as Dave laid them out. This involved climbing a 12’ step ladder and using a hammer drill to make holes into which we hammered concrete inserts. Frequently we would hit rebar which would cause the drill to catch and if you weren’t braced well the drill would spin causing you to spin as well. To say it was scary is an understatement. At one point Dave had to go do something else. We came to the end of where he had laid out the holes, so I looked at the blue prints and started to layout more holes. Howard thought I was nuts for going above and beyond our "duty". Dave came back and said that since I could read the prints, I would do layout and let Howard drill the holes. Another time, Howard and I were moving the weld fittings (which we would move 8 more times); I was going as fast as I could using the pallet jack and being very efficient. Howard would move a fitting, and then smoke a cigarette. When he asked why I was working so hard, I said, “Because the faster we get done with the bull work the faster we get back to working with pipe.” He really didn’t get it and did wind up dropping out. In my apprenticeship class, which met twice weekly for 9 months of the year, there were 3 females and 3 black and one nephew of a contractor. Marie W. was also Native American. Her father was an Ironworker and she always wanted to weld. Marie is barely 5’ and maybe 100 lbs soaking wet. Well, the powers that be, decided that she should work with controls and instrumentation. Marie knew she would hate it and told them that. They would not let her take welding, so she withdrew for a year and paid for her own weld school. I don’t think that would happen today, but at the time the local was undergoing a merger and there was chaos with no clear leadership. Or what leadership we had was definitely antifemale. At one point the DOL interviewed me because contractors had told them that the women who got in had been coerced into having sex with the BA. I knew that was BS. In my case, I had only met the BA once, with my husband in the room. From conversations with the other women I was pretty sure it wasn’t true for them either. That was the first time I had to defend my honor. It wouldn’t be my last. PS Marie is now a top class nuclear welder and is respected everywhere she works.