The Percy Program

It is a fight to level the playing field to be able to compete for jobs and careers on the basis of skills and make available apprentice training to all. In 1973 Al Percy launched a class action lawsuit to give workers like him a chance to better their lot in life. It would also ensure the availability of skilled workers to build the infrastructure of the future.

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3 years ago

Percy Action

on for years, something

on for years, something is wrong. You begin to wonder about yourself.” “What do you do when they have the control? I must shake off the disappointment and come up for air from the sewer of life so many of us have lived in, where for me it was actual.” There is a stench in the air, much like when he worked for the wastewater plant. “I know that from that stench comes a cleansed and renewed flow, fundamental to health, survival, growth & development and opportunity. I have made a decision to push on. My greatest social crime is I've stayed quiet and laid low, waiting for word." “I started out with my share of optimism, believing in hard work with a world of infinite possibilities. I remember my start was in the oil fields of Trinidad as a casual laborer. The job training was working alongside an experienced craft person who was able and willing to transfer their knowhow to inexperienced, although enthusiastic, people like me. I was beginning to pick up work as a teenager with Halliburton Industries and its local presence with Tucker. I was an assistant to a drill rig operator as a casual laborer roughneck. I also worked as an auto mechanic, using the tools of the trade, often times under challenging conditions without modern vehicle lifts or pneumatic tools, repairing engines, clutches and breaks alongside an experienced mechanic. When it came time to repair broken metal I was taught to weld learning how to draw a bead, fuse welding rods to adjacent metal pieces with the heat of electric arc, and joining dissimilar metals by brazing.” “When I arrived in New York City in April 1966, I registered for the draft at 42nd Street in New York City. I was inducted into the United States Army at Whitehall Street in New York City in July 1966 and shipped to US Army boot camp at Fort Jackson SC. I reported to Fort Bragg, NC for Advanced Infantry Training. I served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968, during the Vietnam era, rising from Spec E4 to the rank of Sergeant E5, providing leadership training to 2nd Lieutenants from West Point OCS and ROTC at Fort Knox, KY to prepare them for the war zone.” “After my honorable discharge from the United States Army on July 21, 1972, I took a job with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank as a transaction clerk. But I was young and was looking for more physical work so I took a New York City wide exam and was hired on with the New York City Sanitation 30

Department as a mechanic at the Center of Repair Services in Maspeth, New York. I took a further examination and was promoted to Senior Auto Worker. I then took the oiler examination and was hired at the 26th Ward Wastewater Treatment Plant and began working as an oiler which was the beginning of my career in the sanitation and water pollution plants. At the 26th Ward, I was promoted to the position of Stationary Electrical Engineer and worked under supervisor Walter Boritz and later under Superintendent Garibaldi. I then became the chief Oiler at the North River Water Pollution Control Plant, making sure the plant was maintained and removed pollutants from used water before being discharged into local New York City waterways.” 123. Percy’s service extended for 25 years working in sewer plant facilities with pumps and electrical gear as an Oiler, as a Stationary Electrical Engineer at the 26th Ward Pollution Plant, and as an Oiler at Coney Island Pollution Plant, Owls Head Pollution Control Plant, and North River Water Pollution Control Plant. “North River sticks with me the most where I saved the life of my coworker, Brian Malunat, from drowning in a 15 foot deep sewage influent vat. I remember Malunat shouting ““I am sinking””. With over 9 feet to the bottom, the filth and human waste was filling his boots pulling him under and toward the 6 foot grinder blades where all of the influent and Malunat would be ground into small pieces. He was hanging onto the firehose that he fell in with. He said: ““Percy, please help me, don't let me die this way””, indeed a grizzly death it would have been if he had not been rescued. I put in a ladder and went into the vat, Malunat grabbed me around the neck and I climbed out of the vat with Malunat on my back, laid him on the deck surrounding the vat, hosed him off and took him to the hospital. I took care of my coworkers, workplace safety is so important.” The incident was reported in the Daily News and Percy received a commendation from the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for the rescue at the North River Water Pollution Control Plant, for saving the life of his coworker: 31

Alternative Employment Practice Percy Program