WORKING IN A LUMBER MILL

 Working in a lumber mill is noisy, dusty, and unsafe if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.   During part of March and April of 1971, I spent a month working for Sierra Lumber Manufacturers at their mill in Stockton, California.   This mill did not process logs but manufactured rough-cut lumber purchased from mills that did cut logs.   The wood products manufactured here included pallet stock, fruit box material, different moldings for doors, windows, and many other products.  It was a union mill and new employees were given one month to work there before they had to join the union.   The initial fee to join the union was $100.  Starting wages were $2.67/hour or about $90/week take home after payroll deductions.  The job involved sorting boards according to lengths by pulling them from a moving belt.   I was given three sizes to pull and stack on pallets with all the knots turned inward as not to be shown.   If you missed a board it went to the end of the belt and onto the floor for you to pick up later.  There was a foreman and quality control man looking over your shoulder to see if you were working fast enough and stacking the boards as not to show any defects.   Depending on their product orders there could be up to 6 people sorting boards on the belt if all the cut-off saws were operating.   It was pure madness at times as the boards piled up at the end of the belt and then they shut down the cut-off saws until we could pick up the mess at the end of the belt.  This always got the attention of management when production was stopped as we could see a man in a suit appeared from the mill office, not in a happy mood. 

We were given a 10-minute break in the morning, a half-hour for lunch, and another 10-minute break in the afternoon.   Punching a time card was required when starting work, at noon for lunch, when we returned from lunch, and at the end of the workday.   After two weeks the union representative would approach me when in line to punch my time card and asked when I would be going to the union hall to join.   After the third week, he said," we have not seen you at the union hall and you only have a week before you must join and pay your $100 fee."   I had no intention of joining their union since I recently received a notice of acceptance for a position with the Forest Service on the Orleans Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest starting in May of 1971.   Not knowing what Orleans was like I had accepted their job offer knowing it had to be a better work environment than that mill.  

PS--somewhere in this blog is my memoirs of the 6 years I worked at Orleans and other stories about the Indian culture, marijuana growers, Big Foot, and a few other interesting characters that were part of the life around Orleans.