Back in the late 70s, shortly after I graduated high school I went to work at Armco Steel’s Houston facility. Back then when you went to work at an industrial facility of this size you started out in the company’s labor pool and were placed at various positions around the plant until an opening became available permanently in one of many departments within the facility. However you did have several options based upon the seniority you held within the plant. First you could bid for whatever position became available, whether it was for a day or for a week or longer and if you bid on a particular job and you found it not to your liking you could bid out of that position without having to stay any length of time. Second if you were drafted to a position you had to stay on that job until it ended or a minimum of six months and then the final option was freezing at the job level that you were at, not being able to move up if a position became available above your pay rate in a progressive rank and those below you moved around you.
Based upon my position in the labor pool I generally would be sent on clean-up jobs throughout the plant. About three months after being there, I ended up as one of the lower people in the labor pool in regards to seniority and ended up being drafted to the company’s Coke Plant as a millwright’s helper and for those of you out there a millwright is a specialized mechanic who works on industrial components from overhead cranes to conveyor systems to basic maintenance of moving parts such as greasing of bearings or changing drive belts.
Now this is a job that I remember quite well based upon the first day I worked that position. Prior to working at Armco I had worked with a friend of mine who was a mechanic as a helper and that job was quite easy. All I had to do was get the tools he needed, be a third hand when it was required and go get parts that he needed to be replaced. So in my mind I thought this was what I would be doing, but was I surprised. If you are not familiar with what coke is, it is a form of coal that is used as a fuel to generate electricity. I happened to be drafted here during a month-long shutdown so they could do an overhaul of the facility. I worked days and started the day off in the labor pool and after being drafted went down to the coke plant where I thought it would be an easy day do general cleanup. We were divided into teams and assigned the tasks that needed to be completed and seeing maintenance was done primarily on days for this department I thought we would be headed home at the end of the shift. However we were asked to double over at 1 ½ times the base pay rate so seeing I didn’t get overtime in the labor pool I took it.
That night we began to tear down the facility and the group that I was with had the job of breaking down and rebuilding some 200 valves that allowed the coke slurry into the furnace where it burned to create the heat needed to generate the stream that drove the turbines that created the electricity for the main electric furnace where the steel was made. By the time I got off I was covered from head to toe in thick grease similar to what you would find in your barbeque pit if you hadn’t cleaned it for six months. The sad thing was, I didn’t have a change of clothes seeing in the pool you basically went around the plant pushing a broom. I had just purchased a brand new Toyota Celica with cloth seats and wasn’t about to drive home like that so I stripped down to my birthday suit and drove home butt naked. One thing I learned that day was that a mechanics job isn’t as easy as it looks, especially if you are an apprentice/ helper and trying to explain to the police why you are driving through an area where there generally isn’t any traffic at 2 a.m. naked can be quite hilarious.
