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.

1999 Toshiba & Separation

At the end of 1999 I asked for a layoff from the pipe shop at Cornell. My youngest daughter was over 3 years old and still wearing diapers. I felt that I was being a terrible mother because I was working so much I didn’t have time to toilet train her. My mother-in-law watched her during the day. She also watched another little girl as well who was much younger. I really felt she wasn’t doing it right. In reality, kids toilet train when they are ready! After a few months with both of us being frustrated as I tried to push her into big girl panties, she decided it was time. She went from diapers all day and night to never wearing them at all. I went back to work feeling much better about my role as a working mother. What I didn’t feel good about was my role as wife. While there are always two sides to every divorce, my side was that I felt like I was caring for three children. I paid most of the bills for the house including insurance, taxes, mortgage, groceries, clothes, and feed bills. He paid the utilities. I did all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and shopping. He cut the grass with the riding lawn mower I bought. Our fights about little things began to escalate. He seemed to think I should be able to do everything his mother did around the house with no help from the “man” of the family. I was working 60 hours a week and was exhausted. In May, I asked him to move out for a trial separation. When he refused, I was forced to file for a legal separation. It was a really tense time. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pay the utilities that he used to cover. But I found that without him in the house my expenses actually went down. I had more free time as we had worked out a shared child custody arrangement. My employer agreed to let me come in an hour late twice weekly, so that I could bring the kids to school and child care in the morning. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the spring, before the separation, I had been working at the Toshiba plant installing a new line. It was a great job, clean and relatively easy. I was partnered up with my old friend Cora Lee who was the first female in our local. We were installing stainless steel lines to some sort of robotic machine. They were connected using a technique called Pro-Press. Basically it was a socket joint with an O-ring inside. You put your pipe into your fitting and then place the machine around it to crimp it. You had to be careful to have everything lined up properly or you would have leaks. The machine was awkward, but not tremendously heavy. We were working along, singing, telling jokes and laughing the whole day. About 2 weeks after we started we had a union meeting. The Business Agent called us over and said, “You two are in trouble! The General Foreman called today”. I was sure we were having too much fun or not being productive enough and were about to be fired. Instead he informed us that the GF wanted to know why we were out producing the guys by three times as much. Apparently when you have a good partner and get into a good work rhythm, pipe gets installed without you even realizing it! But alas, like all good jobs it came to an end.

1998 Cornell University

For most of 1998 I worked at Cornell University again. I can’t emphasize enough about how much I love working there. Your physical surroundings are beautiful. Buildings were done in architectural styles from 1860 to modern. Oh and the greenery!!! I would spend my lunch hours walking around Beebee Lake or through the sculpture garden at the Plantations. If the weather was bad, I would go to the Johnson Museum of Art and look at new exhibits or old favorites. On the top floor, which also holds Asian Art, there are huge windows with views looking up Cayuga Lake and across Ithaca. The majority of the professors and student treat you (a common worker) with respect and in some cases awe. I don’t think it was just that I was female either. Cornell is such an open liberal environment that was never a huge issue except for some of my co-workers, but not many. I worked with some great guys! Joe I the pump guy. Smiley who was always ready to help and yes, always with a smile. Paul E the new pump guy who became a very good friend. My old buddy Tom S who was an apprentice with me. These are just a few of the guys I worked around that I knew had my back. The bean counters didn’t like you to work in pairs, but if you needed a hand there was always someone you could call for help. Some days were crazy with emergency calls from overflowing floor drains in the Big Red Barn to no heating/cooling in a Dean’s office. There was glass, PVC, cast iron, steam, chemical, and air piping. You could be fixing toilets one day and helping a grad student build a flume the next. You never knew what you were going to walk into when they handed out the work tickets in the morning. That’s what made it fun! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What made it not fun was sometimes things couldn’t get fixed in an eight hour day. I would have unexpected overtime. With two little kids at home, that can be tough. At the time I was still married, but he really hated it when I was late. I hated missing bath and story time with my girls! Looking back this was one of the calmest times in my life. I had a steady 40 hour job that not only paid the bills, but allowed me to put some away for college educations. My house got paid off. My kids were well cared for and happy. I was done with school and the future was looking good. But as the saying goes, if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. By 1999, things had changed drastically.

1997 Wegman's Ithaca

After a month off, another job opened up at the Wegmans Store in Ithaca. It was being built right next to an existing Wegmans that apparently was built improperly so that it was sinking into the swamp area of South Ithaca. This job was one of those ones that look like it should be a great job but due to the personalities on the job it really wasn’t. There was one guy who was just so whiney! We called him the bitter fitter. We all wanted to work 4-10’s, but he wouldn’t let us as it was working contrary to the contract. There was another who was such a pervert. One day he left a wire sculpture depicting two figures having anal sex at my seat at the lunch table. I picked it up and tossed it in the trash without comment. We called him the BugFucker. Naturally I was partnered with him to install hangers. Wegman stores take enormous quantities of refrigeration piping. The hangers have to be pitched plus the roof is pitched. With hangers being about 8’ apart, you had to cut each hanger about 2” different than the one before or after. This concept was beyond this guy’s understanding, so he would cut “about” measurements that would wind up way too short or way too long. When I got frustrated he would say, “What does it matter? It’s all time and material. They pay us to do it again.” He was one of the few fitters I ever worked with that truly set a bad example for the union. He also rammed me one time while on a lift and laughed about it. After that I refused to work with him. A week later, the foreman came over with my paycheck and handed me two. I thought I was being laid off, but he said that it was the BF’s since obviously I had been carrying him for weeks. Too bad he made me give the extra check back! We started to fall behind, but the guys refused to work overtime. So my boss had to put a second shift on for a few weeks. I quickly volunteered, just to get away from that crew. Six guys were hired. Five came down from Syracuse. One came up from Elmira. Larry B was really a welder, but still a good guy and mechanic. At his request, we started car pooling. At least twice a week we would end up closing down the Alpine Inn. Usually it was just us and the bartender. Ken was not pleased to say the least! For probably the first time, I was definitely the best worker on the job. I had worked so many Wegmans that I had more experience than the others. I was able to work faster with fewer mistakes. The last night everyone was being laid off except me who was going back to day shift for the last few weeks. There wasn’t anything to do on the job, so the boss told us to take a long break at the Eagles Club which was within walking distance. The break lasted about 3 hours. When the boss didn’t join us, the other guys asked me to go over to find out what was happening. As it turned out the big wigs had come down from Rochester. There stood my boss with no crew! He was not happy with us, but it wasn’t our fault. I met that boss again on another job. We laughed about it or at least I did. I stayed there until the day they opened. One of the fun things about my job is that I get to go into all these places and point out my work.

1997 Buckbee Mears & Babies

I was finally ready to go back to work. Both my girls were doing great. We had been able to go on field trips to the zoo, to the natural history museum and planetarium in Rochester and to visit Nana in Florida. While my mother-in-law was able to see my girls on a regular basis, my mother had moved to Florida with husband who wasn’t able to travel much. The job available was at Buckbee Mears in Cortland just over an hour from home. They were working 6-10’s. I knew it was going rough on all of us. Every morning, I would be up by 5, feed the horses and kids, pack my lunch, gather all the kids stuff and head out the door by 530. He would drink his coffee and have breakfast, then load the kids into the car, and drop them off at his mother’s house. At night he would pick them up and be home two hours before me. I usually had dinner ready to go, so all he had to do was warm it up. I would get home, eat, bathe the kids, read a story and go to bed. On Saturdays he didn’t work but I think he preferred it when his mom watched the kids. One Saturday I called on my way home to see if I needed to pick anything up. Apparently Ken was going to let me get home, so I could make dinner. Instead we met at a local restaurant. I had been bragging how my little one was walking at 8 months. When Ken arrived, I said set her down and she came running across the room to her Mommy. Only then did I realize he hadn’t put her shoes on! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The job itself was interesting. Grant W was my foreman, very smart and easy going. It was a lot of process piping, so everyday was something knew. I was partnered with Joe F who had just had a major brain injury and was on massive doses of various drugs to keep him under control. He still was likely to blurt out something wildly inappropriate, but I took it with a grain of salt considering his history. It wasn't until I worked with him years later that I found out he is always like that! At one point they decided to put us on two shifts and asked for volunteers for nights. Grant took me aside and told me he knew I had a new baby and I was exempt from night shift. I thought that was really nice of him, but there was another guy on the crew who had a 6 week old. They asked him to go on nights. Rather than explain that he was in the same situation as me, he did it, but whined about unequal treatment. The job only lasted 7 weeks but it made a nice jumpstart to my finances!

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!