From janitor to semiconductor assembly worker
I was a janitor and I had two kids. I was a single mom and the lady across the street worked at National(National Semiconductor) and she liked me and she helped me get a job.
I mean I was an assembly worker at National. I was the lead in charge of some girls and ah We worked in the deposition department and I'm not really sure what kind of chemicals are involved in that.
It was like a belt thing and we had big, round wafers that we put on there and then it went through the deposition phase and then we had to clean them with acid first and rinse them off and then another girl had this big round thing and she put the wafers in there.
Up in the other department they had designs that went on these wafers and then I think later they cut them and attached wires to them and you know probably some soldering and stuff like that. That's not good to breathe and that's about all I know.
“Respect for the Individual”
Well in the beginning, IBM always was on a high pedestal and looked up at and um when I got hired there their Model was “Respect for the individual.”
And when I first started working there I felt very secure. I did respect the company because they hired disabled people. They had blind, deaf, people in wheelchairs, they were all over. And if these people needed some help to do their job, IBM had people come in to do sign language and for meetings.
But then as we got into this area of cutting back and a lot of the other companies were going offshore and it was getting into IBM's money pocket and they wanted to make some adjustments too. And so they were doing weird things to get people to leave and take early retirement and some people had to go to Mexico to train people and they were training their own replacements.
And at National Semiconductor we didn't work all that overtime like at IBM. IBM we worked twenty eight days a month without stopping. You didn't have any life. But at National you got off on the weekends and you don't have all that misery.
If both parents worked there, which happened in a lot of cases, they didn't get to spend any time with their children. As they got older, kids got in trouble. You know they didn’t have the love, the supervision, the caring. That was non-existent.
And then there were other cases where maybe the wife worked there or maybe the husband worked there and they were there every day, twenty eight days a week. They never were home all their working hours were there they started having affairs. There were all kinds of people flowing around and getting serious and ending up in a divorce. It was really sad to for that to be happening.
But yet their slogan was “Respect for the Individual" that it respect.
Work at IBM
In the very beginning I built actuators. It was a mechanical assembly with screw drivers and I was putting heads on the thing and then what did I do next?
I ran some kind of a machine around on the other side of the building and then my last two jobs I ran testers. The product was already built and I had to test it. That's what I did at the end. When I was running a tester I wasn't in the clean room.
And then for a little while I worked in an office and then I also worked in a warehouse for a while but at that time I was a supplemental. I had gone back in, got paid seven ninety five an hour which was nothing.
I was friends with some upper management people and they advised me to take early retirement. And I mean I really liked working there. I didn't want to do that and if you fill out your time you'll get a better retirement and if you leave earlier it's much smaller. But they told me “no you really should leave because they're going to lay a lot of people off and you might be one of them.”
So I took their advice and took an early retirement. I was fifty two I think when I left so I got a job somewhere else. I worked three years as a supplemental (at IBM) and then I got a job somewhere else.
Compiled scrapbooks
With National I didn't have that kind of relationship with the people. I just went to work and came home. With IBM, I had a very close relationship. We were like family and unfortunately (showing her scrapbooks) these are the people that worked there got sick and died.
I don't know how it happened but I have a distribution list of IBM and I probably have several hundred, maybe three or I don't know. I send out information if somebody's sick, if somebody died, if somebody got married, if it's their birthday. I mean it's not all doom and gloom.
Some of the bigwigs at IBM found out about it and now they send me every person that died. IBM's a big company and they want that information to get out to all the people. So they're sending it to me and out of courtesy and respect, I send it out.
But I don't add it to my book. I don't even notice people. I either went to the funeral myself and got an obituary or I got it online and I printed it and put it in the book.
I just try to keep my friends connected. I like people and like I said at IBM, we were like family because we worked so many hours. We were always there and I like to keep the people that are left connected and so I do.
But actually now I'm getting too old⋯.
Several people that work in the same area get the same disease
If I remember correctly there were I think four people that worked at Partwash, Shanny and Tim and Rubin and then there's a young man named Monty, and they all had MS.
Then there's quite a cluster of breast cancer and there's a group of cancer of the pancreas and we had brain tumors. I mean the company was widespread, this is just a small area in San Jose.
You start wondering when several people get the same thing that work in the same area.
I don't know but I believe in my heart that they're very guilty. It's obvious.
They don't want to pay big bucks. They're gonna get sued big time by all these families that lost their loved ones and they don't wanna get nailed but that's respect for the individual. Yeah they keep killing more because that's what they're doing only somewhere else.
I mean one day we all have to answer. If they don't want to try to make some changes before that time comes, I feel sorry for them. Because they know. They're not stupid and human life is valuable and they act like “Oh well, I'll get another body in here.”
Are you that selfish?
You're required to read it(MSDS) before you start a new job and it kind of explains the chemical and what it does in blah blah blah. I think by law they have to make you aware. I don't think people put a whole lot of stock, they were like “Oh I gotta read this thing.” They kind of brush over it in a hurry. So that could be partly our fault too.
We used to use freon to wipe down our equipment, our screw drivers and stuff and we just thought it was like alcohol or something. And you know kids being kids. We were big kids and it was in a bottle with a thing and we squirted each other with it. We didn't know it was bad.
And if we work twenty eight days straight, you get kind of loopy and you get stupid.
I just think it's criminal that these companies are doing this. I mean they got to know it happened over here. It's not a surprise. Now it's happening over there.
Do something about it. Stop it. You're killing innocent people. Don't you have a conscience?
Do you want that to happen to your daughter, your mother, your sister, your brother?
I mean what's going on? Is money that important?
It's criminal. It really is.
I mean just take some precautions. You can still make money. You can still produce these products but you need to make some precautions for the safety of the people doing the work.
Why wouldn't you wanna do that? Are you that selfish?
Interviewer Media Cuckoo
Writer Lim Dayun
Painter Park Jeongwon
From janitor to semiconductor assembly worker
I was a janitor and I had two kids. I was a single mom and the lady across the street worked at National(National Semiconductor) and she liked me and she helped me get a job.
I mean I was an assembly worker at National. I was the lead in charge of some girls and ah We worked in the deposition department and I'm not really sure what kind of chemicals are involved in that.
It was like a belt thing and we had big, round wafers that we put on there and then it went through the deposition phase and then we had to clean them with acid first and rinse them off and then another girl had this big round thing and she put the wafers in there.
Up in the other department they had designs that went on these wafers and then I think later they cut them and attached wires to them and you know probably some soldering and stuff like that. That's not good to breathe and that's about all I know.
“Respect for the Individual”
Well in the beginning, IBM always was on a high pedestal and looked up at and um when I got hired there their Model was “Respect for the individual.”
And when I first started working there I felt very secure. I did respect the company because they hired disabled people. They had blind, deaf, people in wheelchairs, they were all over. And if these people needed some help to do their job, IBM had people come in to do sign language and for meetings.
But then as we got into this area of cutting back and a lot of the other companies were going offshore and it was getting into IBM's money pocket and they wanted to make some adjustments too. And so they were doing weird things to get people to leave and take early retirement and some people had to go to Mexico to train people and they were training their own replacements.
And at National Semiconductor we didn't work all that overtime like at IBM. IBM we worked twenty eight days a month without stopping. You didn't have any life. But at National you got off on the weekends and you don't have all that misery.
If both parents worked there, which happened in a lot of cases, they didn't get to spend any time with their children. As they got older, kids got in trouble. You know they didn’t have the love, the supervision, the caring. That was non-existent.
And then there were other cases where maybe the wife worked there or maybe the husband worked there and they were there every day, twenty eight days a week. They never were home all their working hours were there they started having affairs. There were all kinds of people flowing around and getting serious and ending up in a divorce. It was really sad to for that to be happening.
But yet their slogan was “Respect for the Individual" that it respect.
Work at IBM
In the very beginning I built actuators. It was a mechanical assembly with screw drivers and I was putting heads on the thing and then what did I do next?
I ran some kind of a machine around on the other side of the building and then my last two jobs I ran testers. The product was already built and I had to test it. That's what I did at the end. When I was running a tester I wasn't in the clean room.
And then for a little while I worked in an office and then I also worked in a warehouse for a while but at that time I was a supplemental. I had gone back in, got paid seven ninety five an hour which was nothing.
I was friends with some upper management people and they advised me to take early retirement. And I mean I really liked working there. I didn't want to do that and if you fill out your time you'll get a better retirement and if you leave earlier it's much smaller. But they told me “no you really should leave because they're going to lay a lot of people off and you might be one of them.”
So I took their advice and took an early retirement. I was fifty two I think when I left so I got a job somewhere else. I worked three years as a supplemental (at IBM) and then I got a job somewhere else.
Compiled scrapbooks
With National I didn't have that kind of relationship with the people. I just went to work and came home. With IBM, I had a very close relationship. We were like family and unfortunately (showing her scrapbooks) these are the people that worked there got sick and died.
I don't know how it happened but I have a distribution list of IBM and I probably have several hundred, maybe three or I don't know. I send out information if somebody's sick, if somebody died, if somebody got married, if it's their birthday. I mean it's not all doom and gloom.
Some of the bigwigs at IBM found out about it and now they send me every person that died. IBM's a big company and they want that information to get out to all the people. So they're sending it to me and out of courtesy and respect, I send it out.
But I don't add it to my book. I don't even notice people. I either went to the funeral myself and got an obituary or I got it online and I printed it and put it in the book.
I just try to keep my friends connected. I like people and like I said at IBM, we were like family because we worked so many hours. We were always there and I like to keep the people that are left connected and so I do.
But actually now I'm getting too old⋯.
Several people that work in the same area get the same disease
If I remember correctly there were I think four people that worked at Partwash, Shanny and Tim and Rubin and then there's a young man named Monty, and they all had MS.
Then there's quite a cluster of breast cancer and there's a group of cancer of the pancreas and we had brain tumors. I mean the company was widespread, this is just a small area in San Jose.
You start wondering when several people get the same thing that work in the same area.
I don't know but I believe in my heart that they're very guilty. It's obvious.
They don't want to pay big bucks. They're gonna get sued big time by all these families that lost their loved ones and they don't wanna get nailed but that's respect for the individual. Yeah they keep killing more because that's what they're doing only somewhere else.
I mean one day we all have to answer. If they don't want to try to make some changes before that time comes, I feel sorry for them. Because they know. They're not stupid and human life is valuable and they act like “Oh well, I'll get another body in here.”
Are you that selfish?
You're required to read it(MSDS) before you start a new job and it kind of explains the chemical and what it does in blah blah blah. I think by law they have to make you aware. I don't think people put a whole lot of stock, they were like “Oh I gotta read this thing.” They kind of brush over it in a hurry. So that could be partly our fault too.
We used to use freon to wipe down our equipment, our screw drivers and stuff and we just thought it was like alcohol or something. And you know kids being kids. We were big kids and it was in a bottle with a thing and we squirted each other with it. We didn't know it was bad.
And if we work twenty eight days straight, you get kind of loopy and you get stupid.
I just think it's criminal that these companies are doing this. I mean they got to know it happened over here. It's not a surprise. Now it's happening over there.
Do something about it. Stop it. You're killing innocent people. Don't you have a conscience?
Do you want that to happen to your daughter, your mother, your sister, your brother?
I mean what's going on? Is money that important?
It's criminal. It really is.
I mean just take some precautions. You can still make money. You can still produce these products but you need to make some precautions for the safety of the people doing the work.
Why wouldn't you wanna do that? Are you that selfish?
Interviewer Media Cuckoo
Writer Lim Dayun
Painter Park Jeongwon