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.