It was one
such “Oh Happy Day” for the “Best of the Best” in that September of 1980, down yonder
Valdez at the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s “Marine Terminal”, at the “END”
of the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. A time when the Alyeska 5th Floor
Bragaw Street executives still held a smidgeon of respect for the Valdez
workers - yet it wasn’t enough to hold off a “My Lai Massacre” by that
authority against the workers trying to “Unionize”. And yes, it was an “Oh Happy
Day” when that bronze statue in “tribute” to the “Teamsters” and Junior Leslie’s
“798ers” finally went unveiled, as there was an empty six pack of “BUD” hanging
off of the welder’s stick and with that the “76 trombones led the big parade” came
to a screeching halt! It was symbolically realistic, the Red with the White
with the Blue dangling cans reflecting the sunshine of a decent day for Prince
William Sound, that this was “My Country ‘Tis of Thee sweet Land of Liberty”
and “UNION” made! And at the time the “Sound” had not yet been sabotaged by a
wreck which wrecked the image of the “Pipeline People” and time for “Wreck-it-Ralph”
to move over for an Uncle Al fill-in. So this “beer can” caper, it lasted to
stay around for a few laughs, then the festivities went on - “Hail to the Jimmy”
it sounded like, as in “Hoffa”! Yes, a statue in celebration of the “Teamsters”
who deserved such notoriety for making “Oil In” a reality. Not to forget the
dedication of the “798ers” that dared to go where no man has gone before with a
welder’s torch - like the treacherous Thompson Pass to mend together that pipe.
Hey, this “statue” was a tribute to the “UNION Labor” that built that 800-mile
dipstick, get over it Mr. Serpentine Turpentine’s fan club and your George M. Nelson
Seaton mouth-piece in butt-plugging fascination!
OK, and
so what does it amount to the local technicians playing hookie away from job
responsibilities in aiding and abetting this prank, with the beer cans we were
trying to get a point across. Actually, it was a baited trap without a snare,
as we knew if a “Tanker Crew” closing in at the “berths” got a whiff of “Free
Beer”, it would be pilferage and consumed on the job. What Security? We set
that gig up before the ceremony, laughs not intended, it was promoted as a
protest. If only had the Alyeska Filth Floor Bragaw listened to our concerns,
that we were ready to break the knuckles of them drunk tanker crews not minding
their own business and break the balls of some dip-shit “Marine Supervisor”
demanding we provide escort services for the bums back to their pirate ships -
after the once “Able Bodied” spent hours in town binge drinking. I did not get
hired by Alyeska to skirt the law and entertained no idea wherein that extra
activity would help me on a job resume - Please list additional Qualifications:
Assisted drunks! And when one technician hurt his back packing a “dead-weight drunk”
up the gang plank on Berth#3, surely one could not file a workman’s
compensation claim, as you have to be honest upon how and when an injury occurred
- and that would have been a red herring. Hey Joe, take a few days off with
pay!
Today,
that statue is but for a sanctuary, I meant depository for bird turds. What a
disgrace! OK, Alyeska finally got rid of that “Union” image after getting rid
of the “vocal Union supporters” and then gave the statue away, to someone that
cares and no longer is it a target for EXXON Valdez aftermath sick birds with
the “runs”. So, it is a sanctuary to the “Union” still, but out-of-site and
out-of-mind the Alyeska “mentality” of “Shoot the Messenger, Kill the Union”. But
during its heyday that statue, but for a reminder what the “hard working salt
of the earth” in dedication Alyeska workers were all about. Those like myself that
tried to live peacefully in Valdez while raising a family and working to keep
that “Pipeline” at attention to operate “responsible” and that once shat upon “Statue”
became the tribute that the “Corporate” mentality ordered, in efforts to
disgrace the “Union” drives back before that EXXON Valdez got away with murder
Joe wrote.
It
required a “UNION” to build that pipeline and another “UNION” was of necessity
in Valdez following “Oil In”, not for any construction efforts as that era was
now history, but to maintain the sanctity of merits consistent with the
obligation to operate within the law, instead of above it the reason Joe Hazelwood
would get away with that “murder”. So would the Mighty EXXON Corporation find leniency
following the EXXON Valdez wreck, as neither the three-sheets-to-the-wind “Hard
Aground” Captain or the “Tiger” was named as the guilty party this “wreck” in
the END. At appeal after appeal after appeal, this was realized as it was due
to Alyeska reneging on its responsibility to police any and all actions detrimental
to the safe operation of the steel beast accordingly, which includes the “Tanker
Trade” and the crews that would in time prove foolheartedly some people don’t
give a rat’s ass shitting on another’s back door! Yes “guilty” by association
and all other legal “links” as what was going on in Valdez was not some secret.
But instead of attacking the problem, instead of putting resources to condemn a
serious problem, well let’s harass them workers that want a “Union”. Frank Zappa
wrote a tune, called “Kenny’s Little Creatures on Display”, the words best
describes the Alyeska Corporate “mindset” wherein instead of the kids attending
school like they were supposed to, for that all important “we learned it all in
kindergarten” to Not lie and play nice, instead playing hookie and hiding away
in a basement just to explode their flatulence, the same thing Alyeska’s
Corporate was doing instead of addressing problems that would one day culminate
in dead whales washing ashore sea to sea in the “Sound”. And if a new statue is
ever envisioned for the Alyeska Filth Floor Bragaw…Thank You Frank and right up
Frank’s alley:
OK, my
tribute a for real statue in honor the Alyeska “workers” in Valdez that bucked
the system, that went against the “grain” and saw reason that a “Union” was of
necessity to survive a “management mindset” that was dangerous - else the EXXON
Valdez would have never crashed “Hard Aground”. The latter ended up in history
as a wreck, but I am talking the SS Manhattan, which used to call on the Port
of Valdez and the Alyeska Marine Terminal when it was in the “crude oil” trade.
And that ship had a history akin to what the Alyeska “workers” were all about. It
was a beat-up rust bucket, an eye-sore to those of us that had the opportunity
to know of that tanker’s existence, in history and see it, right there at
Berth#4. That ship made the Northwest Passage and had to free the ice-stuck
U.S. NAVY vessel that accompanied it on that voyage. The NAVY’s pride and joy
vessel was sent on that voyage in efforts to help a disabled or stuck tanker,
it was a vice-versa thing good thing for the Manhattan! So, it reminds me of
the dedicated Alyeska “workers” that were there to bail out “Corporate” and
instead of taking that heed, the Filth Floor Bragaw Street “mentality” balked
and that set the stage for the EXXON Valdez “wreck”. The sides we take. It
sucked!
