Page prepared byYves Barbero
Computer Consultant
Member, National Writers Union,
The entire crew said they were leaving for a coffee while the young adjuster-in-charge went to use the phone and call in for materials. When he left the building to meet the crew in the nearby coffee shop the superintendent came along and asked the young man to walk around the block with him. The young adjustor was told, "I was just talking to the building owner and was asked why you could not turn-over car number five this Friday. He pointed to your men walking together towards the coffee shop. If you want a coffee break, either join civil service or negotiate it through your union. If you can't keep the men working I'll get somebody else. Is that clear?"
As you can imagine, the young adjuster got the entire crew together and gave pretty much the same as he had received from the superintendent. Send a helper out for coffee, but never all go at the same time.
A few years later this young adjuster was doing a job in the Islands when the president of the International showed up for some official business and during a meeting with union members he was asked by the adjuster there, "Why not have a coffee break in our next agreement?"
The president came back with, "If you are not smart enough to get a coffee break on your own, without it being in the agreement, then you are not smart enough to be an elevator man! Go to work in civil service!"
No more need be said.
"What size rope is on that governor?"
"Why that's a 1/4 inch rope, sir."
Don't you know those governors require a 3/8 inch rope?"
"Oh yes sir, but we did not have any so we installed the 1/4 inch rope because it was available."
"How many cars are in operation with this rope size/"
"Oh sir, at least fifty!"
When visiting a ten story condominium building (each floor having a single apartment), to service an elevator, the building maintenance man, Bob, asked if I would help him carry a large Roto-Rooter machine up to the roof.
What can you do? Almost a foregone conclusion is to retain friendship with a building engineer or maintenance man. Part of a service man's job. For that reason, we rolled this rather large unit onto the elevator and went to the top floor. From there we struggled and carried the machine onto the roof.
An apartment about six floors down had a sewer line stoppage and this caused troubles in other apartments above. All attempts to unclog this had been futile. Hence, Bob, had decided to use a Roto-Rooter machine and go down the vent pipe outlet on the roof. His machine was not only heavy, with a one-horse motor attached, but the steel cable appeared to be at least three-quarters of an inch in diameter. This was no toy and I was anxious to watch its performance.
Unlocking the machine room door we ran a heavy extension cord to his Roto-Rooter machine and made connection. He dropped the cable down the vent pipe and turned on the power. The cable rapidly turned as he cranked additional length into the pipe.
Seemed that lots of cable had disappeared into the vent pipe when the machine did a little jig on the roof and then continued as if undisturbed. Eventually all the cable was inside the vent pipe and Bob commenced coiling it again onto the machine. He had reached the conclusion that what ever had caused the blockage was now cleared and proceeded to reel in the cable. Again it gave a short dance, as if something was stuck on the claw-cutter attached to the far end of the cable. Eventually all was normal and the job finished.
I assisted in carrying the unit from the roof to the top floor, calling the elevator and hauling his gadget inside. Pressed button for the basement floor. However, the elevator was collective and a down call was waiting at the third floor. When the car stopped and the door opened there was a tenant screaming about the mess coming down the stairs into her apartment! Running upstairs it was discovered another two floors had the identical problem---crap oozing along the floor.
The maintenance man unlocked an apartment door about three floors above and there was the most terrible sight I had ever seen in my years in the elevator business.
Apparently the blockage was caused by a 4 by 4 post, about six feet long which had been inside the pipe for years. Until recently, no one was the wiser when the claw-cutter had grabbed the 4 by 4 and twisted it around until the soil pipe broke apart. But, that was not all, The cable on the machine had seized this 4 by 4 tight enough to force a break-out through the plaster wall and as it had unclogged the pipe above the entire contents had discharged into this one apartment and under the door to the stairway. However, that was not the only damage. Since the entire length of cable from the machine had been fed down the drain pipe this continued to enter the apartment, swinging the attached wood post, covered with crap, around and around, slinging the mess over everything and every place in the apartment while it proceeded to demolish furniture, refrigerator, stove, a couple inside doors, bedding, clothing, etc. Obviously the smashed toilet and bathroom sink created collateral destruction by becoming separated from the their respective pipes and water was spraying in every direction. Inside the apartment there was not one single item left untouched as sixty or seventy feet of cable had swung the crap covered wood around like a crazed science-fiction monster.
The maintenance man was lucky. No tenant was in the apartment at the time of the scary invasion.
Well, the inexperienced mechanic was all to happy to assist and prove himself and rapidly agreed. The problem with the elevator was it was not running. And, the boss said, "Keep my phone number with you. I'll be in the office if you find this trouble not easily fixed. The car is rather strange. OK?"
When the mechanic arrived at the job site, he did see something unusual. To some extent it appeared like every other elevator except for one major difference. In lieu of hall buttons at each of the seven floors, this elevator had a car-switch alongside every elevator landing. That's correct, one car-switch for every floor. Whenever one car-switch is in operation all others are supposedly cut-out of service, including the one in the car. The problem was that outside units had started interfering with the in-car-switch control when it was used.
Thirty minutes later the mechanic phoned his boss, who responded, "Leave it go. We'll take care of it tomorrow."
And the mechanic never did discover how that machine operated or the problem was solved because shortly afterwards the elevator was torn out and his boss died.
One evening, Dave received a call from the answering service. A building needed an elevator to be fixed immediately. Dave, being a good union man grabbed the next available street car, rode downtown, picked up his tool-box, caught another street car to the job, and proceeded to work.
However, poor Dave was dealing with a UMV (unit-multi-voltage job) of the 10-U variety and could not solve the problem. His expertise was car switch controllers. Hence, Dave asked the night lobby guard if he could use the building telephone and call for assistance.
The time was now about 11 PM and upon receiving the call for help, Dave's friend Joe, jumped into his car and drove downtown. Thirty minutes later the trouble with the elevator had been overcome and both men walked out of the building. Joe offered Dave a ride home and Dave accepted.
A couple of weeks later, at the regular union meeting and under the subject of new business, Dave stands and makes a motion that the union try Joe for using his private vehicle on the night he, Dave, had asked for help. Further, since Joe came to help Dave, he did not put in any overtime and that too should be considered by the membership and a fine imposed!
End of friendship.
The boss ordered a dozen men to go and tear-out an old elevator in a building that did not have much traffic and instructed his top-notch construction foreman to run the job. The new equipment should arrive at the job site in a couple days.
Mechanics and helpers went to it with a willing effort and the old car was out of the building and into the junk yard within two days.
The superintendent showed at the job and almost had a stroke!
He had given the wrong address to his foreman! Needless to say, there was a big loss for the zone accounting that year.
On one occasion I had to do just that and entered one morning with a smiling face. But, inside was all gloom and doom. Not a friendly word was said. I received orders for some job or another and was told to leave quickly.
Only later did I learn that the bosses were looking for the individual who signed for and approved an escalator job measurement. The new escalator had arrived at the job site and was ten feet too short!
Go to The People's Elevator
Tom Grosch can be reached at groscht@theriver.com
Page prepared by
Yves Barbero
Computer Consultant
Member, National Writers Union,