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.

1989 Divorce and NYSEG

At this point, I have to get personal. My life outside the job was in chaos. Dan, my husband, apparently hadn’t paid US taxes in over 10 years. He married me in January 1988, we filed joint taxes in April 1989; the IRS swooped in and closed our joint checking account. I have no idea why he didn’t tell me or why he put me in such a vulnerable position. I was young and naïve is all I can say in my defense. He immediately high-tailed it back to Canada where he re-married his ex-wife. To this day I am not sure we were legally married, or if he was a bigamist. I do know that his three children looked at me as his wife and their step mother. In fact, I married him because I was 30 years old, liked his family, especially his mother and sister, and of course the children. They lived with us (at different times) over the 8 years we were together and I still feel a very strong connection to them. The divorce was quick, but painful. I had to pay the IRS half the equity of my home, plus half the joint credit cards. Thanks to my mother, I was able to pay the IRS and worked out a payment plan with the credit cards. I swore I would never let my finances get tangled up with someone else’s ever again. At the same time as all this was happening, the job at the prison ended. I was immediately sent to work at NYSEG in Ithaca for a Binghamton contractor. It probably saved my life. The foreman, Lou Woods, was simply wonderful. He laid out the work to do and we did it. He always had the material and tools there. Anything we didn’t understand, he explained. He was also very forgiving of me. I am afraid that drinking problem from my old boss had transferred over to me. I stopped at McAnn’s Inn in VanEtten almost every night. The nights I didn’t stop, I would play softball with the girls from the Homestead Inn in Southport. For the first time as an adult, I had a crowd of women whose company I enjoyed. While I was drinking a lot, I also developed friendships that last to this day. I also met my future husband who played for the Men’s team. To be honest, I don’t remember much of that job, except for Rick C. and his wife. I was about 5 years younger than Rick and apparently that bothered his wife. Shortly after I started she showed up on the job at noon to check me out. I am not sure what I said, but by the time she left, we were friends. They only had one car so I started picking Rick up so she had something to drive during the day. One time, Rick told me she was having a problem with an old employer. Being a good guy, he sent her flowers to make her feel better. When I dropped him off at home that night, she came out and thanked me for the flowers. I laughed and promised it was his idea. When that job ended, we were sent to another job at Cornell. The Theory Center is a tall curving building that is located between Tower Road and a creek. We were installing the heating system which was long sections of fin tube along the walls. When copper is heated it expands. Therefore, you must allow for it in installation with either space consuming loops or mechanical joints. The General Foreman, Jim S-ski, decided that he knew more than the engineers and ignored their specification for anchors and guides and loops. Two weeks after I started, on the day of the company Holiday party (which our old boss insisted we attend), Jim decided to add the hot water to the system. The water went from 40 degrees to 140 degrees and pipe started to expand. Pipe was popping off hangers, bursting where it hit dead ends, and spraying water everywhere. Despite the total mess, or maybe because of it, I waved toodles and headed to the party. I was laid off less than two weeks later.

Southport Prison 1988-89

By the end of the Biotech job, I had been employed by the same contractor for over 18 months, but it was time to go! They were moving in professors and students within the week; I was even able to meet a few and show them around. In later years, when I worked in the Cornell Pipe Shop, it was fun to look at piping I had installed and do the maintenance on it. So there I was--laid off again! But then I was hired to work on plumbing in the addition at the Southport Prison. It was my first and last time being hired mostly because I was a female. As a state (public funded) project, they were required to have a certain percentage of minorities, but by the end of the job the fact that I was female didn’t matter. They knew I could do the job. The superintendent had what you might call a bit of a drinking problem. He rarely showed up before 9 and at least twice a week when we went to lunch, we never made it back to the job. He would hand me the keys to the company truck, so I could go back and lock up our tools and hand in our security badges. The next workers hired after me were my husband and his friends Jack H and Joe B. Luckily for the Super, they were very good at their jobs and we managed to get the project completed on time and under budget. By the end of the job a year and a half later, I was divorced and I am sure no one would have used my liver for a transplant organ! The job itself was very interesting. We installed all the plumbing from underground to the roof drains. The roof drains were a trip! The specifications had us using galvanized piping that used lead and oakum joints. This is almost unheard of today, but for you non-plumbers, it involves winding the oakum (rope like) around the pipe inside a socket, then pouring molten lead on top. After it hardens, you tap it down with a special chisel-like tool. The theory is that when water hits the oakum it swells to prevent leaks while the lead holds it in place. Working with hot lead is dangerous and difficult. Most of the workers who joined us had never worked with it before. I was designated to teach them the technique and all the tricks of the trade. Some of the journeymen did not take kindly to a “girl” apprentice teaching them anything. One disgruntled jerk spit his chewing tobacco into the lead pot as I passed it. The lead in the pot exploded, but luckily I had my back to it. My whole back was covered in a thin sheet of lead, I was unhurt but shaken. He claimed it was an accident, but I know better! I was also asked to keep track of any piping changes we made to the original plans. I learned a lot about blue prints on that job and even got to draw the “as-built” drawings. I definitely was coming into my own and feeling more confident in my knowledge and abilities. School was still frustrating. I didn’t feel like the curriculum was relevant to what we were doing in the workplace. They were very lax and we mostly sat around and talked about hunting and cars. Not exactly a good use of time for me, but I hear it is better now.