First Day at the Coke Plant

I started working at Interlake Steel January 11 1978. I started at the coke plant, in the coal handling department. It was below zero and I woke up with the flu that morning. I was 20 years old and figured I better not miss my first day.

I was in the labor gang and was informed that we were working 12 hours that day and until further notice. The winters were brutal – things were always fucked in extreme weather. The month before I started (I believe it was Christmas Eve), there was a bad fire in the BP plant. So bad that Interlake evacuated the Chicago Fire Dept. It was looking like the place might blow up before the employees got it under control.

Getting back to my first day, I was put on cleaning up the C22 conveyor belt. That is the last belt that went into the coal bins. I was with two other laborers. The belt and it’s housing was way high in the air and on something like an 45 degree angle. Made it hard to stand and work. We had to shovel the coal out from under the conveyor belt. A thin layer of wet coal would stick to the belt. When it’s went underneath for it’s return travel, it would fall off underneath the conveyor and pile up. We had a view of battery #1 and we could see the heat wave coming off the ovens, rising at least 50′ in the air. Dust would come off the top of the load on the belt and sometimes it got so dusty, you couldn’t see your own hand in front of you.

Everybody in coal handling was one color: black. At the end of the day, we would go shower. OSHA and EPA regulations stated that we shower before going home. They didn’t want us to bring that cancer causing shit home to our families. After showering, we still had coal dust around our eyes. It looked like we were wearing mascara. Our co-workers told us baby oil, Vaseline, or mascara remover would get rid of that. A friend told me on his first day, he went home to the East Side on a CTA bus, looking like he was wearing mascara.

My second day was over at the wharf. Shoveling and cleanup at the tail end of the #4 conveyor. The foreman told us if our shovels get caught by the belt, to let it go. He said the month before a new employee – just married – didn’t let go of his shovel. He got pulled in to the belt and killed. The #4 belt was big and very powerful. It was a mile and quarter long, including going 75 feet in the air to cross the river.