1999-2001 Sullivan Park

I was at Corning Glass’s Sullivan Park Research facility for almost 2 years. It was a fascinating place to work. I started in the clean room. As the name implies, it was to be a sterile environment that would enable the scientist to develop products without fear of contamination. Most of the piping was stainless steel, either welded or put together with mechanical fittings. It was very precise work. At the end of the project, when everything had been tested, we were labeling the pipes. Some of the pipes were going to be filled with gases that were deadly if inhaled. I was up a ladder putting on labels as my foreman identified each pipe. One of the scientists opened a valve to a line that had not been capped off properly. The temporary cap blew off, alarms started ringing, and chaos erupted. After it was all over my foreman asked me how I managed to get out before he did since I was up a ladder. “I have 2 babies at home, just knowing that makes me move like lightening”, I replied. Since that project was complete I was transferred to another crew under the leadership of Bud W. A lot of people didn’t like working for Bud. He was a stickler for doing things right. He expected people to work along steadily. If there was a problem getting something done, he wanted to know why. He was also very religious. At one point I told him that he was actually putting people off religion by preaching so much. He was always so happy that I felt that was testament enough to having God’s love in your life. I think he agreed with me because he never preached to me. What he did do was make me a foreman in charge of a two million dollar project. I was called into Mike A’s. (the Superintendent) office at the end of the day. Mike and another GF told me Bud wanted me to be foreman. They asked if I thought the guys would listen to me. I knew it was really up to them. If a guy refused to work for me and they said okay and put him in another crew; that sent a message. If they said okay and laid him off, that sent a message as well. As it turned out it was a moot point. I had no problems with my crew. I had between 8-10 workers on any given day. It was supposed to have been a 40 hr a week job, but there was a huge delay at the beginning that put us on 60 hours. All the underground had been installed before I took over. Due to the chemicals being disposed, special plastic piping called Fuse Seal was used. It is a socket joint that has wire in the fitting. You slide the pipe into the socket; hook the wires to a machine which melts the two plastics together. Well, we had gotten a bad batch of fittings and there were dozens of leaks. Bud and I worked 24 hours straight trying to get a satisfactory test. After consulting with the manufacturer’s rep it was decided to pull out all the piping and start over with extra heavy CPVC. There I was, my first day as foreman, ripping out and reinstalling what had taken a month to put in. Once that was done, we had to install process piping to over 30 labs as well as heating and cooling units, plus all the sanitary lines. It was a complex project that took 6 months, but we came in on time and under budget. It really gave me a chance to prove myself. I loved coordinating with the other trades. I felt like I could do anything after that job. At the end, I walked into Mike’s office and tried to hand in my white hat. I didn’t want to work so many hours with my girls still so young. He wouldn’t take it. He promised me that I could work 40 hours for as long as possible. Instead of having my own crew I was given a rolling tool cart. My job was to coordinate with the scientists for their special needs. If I needed help, I could have a people assigned to me once I had set the project up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately my mouth got me laid off. They had discovered lead in the paint in some of the areas of the plant. They held a meeting to tell us that we were all going to have our blood tested to see if there were any problems. I made the mistake of asking if we were going to have the results mailed to us since we were temporary employees. The contractor took that as a lack of faith in them. I didn’t mean it that way, and my fellow workers were glad I had asked. Three days later Bud had to hand me my layoff check. I thought he was going to cry, but I was okay. My BA had another job lined up closer to home that was just fine with me.