For a year as a contractor in the late eighties. There was always a nasty stink of fumes around the entire plant. It would hit you as you drove up to the place.
I didn't work in a clean room, although I spent my 12 months there slicing silicon wafers and then bathing them in a solvent (do not remember exactly what it was) that dissolved the bond between each wafer and a strip of caulk. The protection I was given was for my eyes (goggles) and hands (rubber gloves).
I do remember that my lungs would burn after shifts, particularly by the end of the week. I don't have cancer, yet, but I do have diminished lung capacity and chronic bronchitus now. Are they fallout from my stint at IBM? Possibly. Doctors always ask me if I smoke (never have) when they give me lung capacity tests and get back these crappy results.
Do I suspect I was taken advantage of? Again, possibly, but you need to understand that at the time it was a big deal to get any job at IBM in Duchess county. Seven dollars an hour was considered a king's ransom since just about all the other work available was for minimum wage. All of the contractors I worked with applied to become full-time employees, and a "lucky" few were accepted when their temp stints ran out. Hopefully, since I wasn't one of the "lucky" ones, I'll be one of the truly lucky ones that doesn't develop a serious illness from my time spent there.
Overall I'm a little worried but as I said, I don't have cancer yet and I take care of my health. I feel bad for my co-workers who are very sick now or who have died. There were a lot of good people working there and I think IBM is no different than any other large corporation in the borderline craven way they put profits above all other considerations.
... go screw themselves. On the day they annonce their intention to intimidate more Americans with their corrupt lawsuits and lawyers they throw this PR bone out?
No. Way. I'm done buying CDs from anything other than non-RIAA affiliated artists. I don't care if they announce that they're giving them away. As far as I'm concerned, the products of those companies are contaminated with the misery and exploitation of ripped-off artists and ripped-off consumers.
Congratulations new graduate! Welcome to the United States of Bangalore! Unfortunately, while you were obliviously studying your ass off your country was hijacked by kleptocrats and your entire industry offshored to the third world as part of late capitalism's frantic race to the bottom.
Hope that was daddy's money, because you'll never pay a loan back now! Buh-bye!
I'm pleased that Lieberman garnered only 1.9 percent of the vote in the MoveOn.org primary. This puts him right next to Al Sharpton on the (lack of) poularity scale with likely democratic voters.
I'm pleased the days of sell-out, wannabee Republican DLC democrats like Lieberman, Gore and Clinton are coming to an end.
Goodbye and good riddance, Joe.
L
That bit in the presentation where Alanis Morrissette goes on about how "everybody is taken care of" with this new service...
Er, I'm an independent musician, one of tens of thousands in the US alone, and if this service is supposed to displace P2P technology I'm here to tell you/we/ have not been taken care of.
We have been screwed again by being left out in the cold.
Lip
..which pays no US taxes, teach them all Java and ship them any remaining IT industry jobs!
Think about it - this would be the best of all possible worlds - a treasonous tax break, a disturbing violation of human dignity, a possible environmental catastrophe/and/ a creator of economic insecurity for working people! Hell, the Republicans could run on this idea in 2004!
What are we waiting for?
Leo the Transgenic Lip
Slashdot Mirror
For a year as a contractor in the late eighties. There was always a nasty stink of fumes around the entire plant. It would hit you as you drove up to the place.
I didn't work in a clean room, although I spent my 12 months there slicing silicon wafers and then bathing them in a solvent (do not remember exactly what it was) that dissolved the bond between each wafer and a strip of caulk. The protection I was given was for my eyes (goggles) and hands (rubber gloves).
I do remember that my lungs would burn after shifts, particularly by the end of the week. I don't have cancer, yet, but I do have diminished lung capacity and chronic bronchitus now. Are they fallout from my stint at IBM? Possibly. Doctors always ask me if I smoke (never have) when they give me lung capacity tests and get back these crappy results.
Do I suspect I was taken advantage of? Again, possibly, but you need to understand that at the time it was a big deal to get any job at IBM in Duchess county. Seven dollars an hour was considered a king's ransom since just about all the other work available was for minimum wage. All of the contractors I worked with applied to become full-time employees, and a "lucky" few were accepted when their temp stints ran out. Hopefully, since I wasn't one of the "lucky" ones, I'll be one of the truly lucky ones that doesn't develop a serious illness from my time spent there.
Overall I'm a little worried but as I said, I don't have cancer yet and I take care of my health. I feel bad for my co-workers who are very sick now or who have died. There were a lot of good people working there and I think IBM is no different than any other large corporation in the borderline craven way they put profits above all other considerations.
Be careful out there, is all I can say.
... go screw themselves. On the day they annonce their intention to intimidate more Americans with their corrupt lawsuits and lawyers they throw this PR bone out?
No. Way. I'm done buying CDs from anything other than non-RIAA affiliated artists. I don't care if they announce that they're giving them away. As far as I'm concerned, the products of those companies are contaminated with the misery and exploitation of ripped-off artists and ripped-off consumers.
Starve.
- L
Congratulations new graduate! Welcome to the United States of Bangalore! Unfortunately, while you were obliviously studying your ass off your country was hijacked by kleptocrats and your entire industry offshored to the third world as part of late capitalism's frantic race to the bottom.
Hope that was daddy's money, because you'll never pay a loan back now! Buh-bye!
I'm pleased that Lieberman garnered only 1.9 percent of the vote in the MoveOn.org primary. This puts him right next to Al Sharpton on the (lack of) poularity scale with likely democratic voters. I'm pleased the days of sell-out, wannabee Republican DLC democrats like Lieberman, Gore and Clinton are coming to an end. Goodbye and good riddance, Joe. L
That bit in the presentation where Alanis Morrissette goes on about how "everybody is taken care of" with this new service... Er, I'm an independent musician, one of tens of thousands in the US alone, and if this service is supposed to displace P2P technology I'm here to tell you /we/ have not been taken care of.
We have been screwed again by being left out in the cold.
Lip
..which pays no US taxes, teach them all Java and ship them any remaining IT industry jobs! Think about it - this would be the best of all possible worlds - a treasonous tax break, a disturbing violation of human dignity, a possible environmental catastrophe /and/ a creator of economic insecurity for working people! Hell, the Republicans could run on this idea in 2004!
What are we waiting for?
Leo the Transgenic Lip