Behind the hoopla, they make the DNC go
By the hundreds, workers aim for a successful event
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential hopeful, will be in front of the cameras this week, but hundreds of workers will be laboring behind the scenes to make the Democratic National Convention a success. These workers include:
Carpenters from Shawmut Design and Construction who built a 150-ton supplemental cooling system with 700 linear feet of pipe.
Cooks at the FleetCenter who will prepare 725 gallons of clam chowder and 165,000 meals.
Ironworkers who hoisted and installed close to 70 tons of steel in the arena ceiling to support extra lights.
Below, several others without whom there would be no DNC talked to The Globe last week about their jobs:
BALLOON INFLATER, SUPERVISOR
Name: Margie Gaudet
Age: 54
Employer: Boston Balloon Events
People see balloons and their eyes light up. But you get wounded by them. You get blisters from tying them. There are three-foot ballons that are latex and your fingers get dry because the air is dry. It's not like we get disrespect. People just don't think about it. They don't know that, for the convention, we will blow up 100,000 balloons.
People don't know that we open up the nets, size the nets, cut them and make sure that nothing sticks to the nets. There are 74 nets and the bottom and side have to be sewn. The nets go all the way down from the ninth floor of the arena to almost the ground floor. There are 40, 104-foot nets and 34, 40-foot nets. We fill the nets. The nets have to be carefully tied on the top and finished in a precise way. It's exhausting. You do all that.
Then, you pray to the balloon gods that when we pull the rip chord. . . the whole seam opens and you'll see all the balloons going down.
SPLICE SERVICE TECHNICIAN
Name: Ricardo Brown
Age: 26
Union: IBEW Local 2222
Employer: Verizon
This is a big event, and I'm loving it. I get a break from working outside in manholes. I think the City of Boston has done a lot of work on the streets in preparation for the convention. I think the convention will help the city get recognition. . .
In the beginning, I was working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Now, we're closer to the end of the job, and it's 8 hours a day. I do copper splicing. I use a tool to cut the wires, and then I make the ending connections.
If you look inside a cable, there are copper wires. The wires are color-coded. There are 25 pairs of wires in a line of cable. The copper lines that I work on are for voice or telephone access. But it could be for the Internet, too.
I started at Verizon when I was at Madison Park High School. I did installations and repairs after school, and sometimes during school. Then, they moved me to construction, which is what I do now. This is my career.
CARPENTER
Name: Keisha Campbell
Age: 27
Union: Carpenters Union Local 103
Employer: Save-on-Dry Wall Co., a joint venture with Shawmut Design and Construction.
I've been on this job since June. I get up at 4:30 a.m. and I get in by 6:30 a.m. We start at 7.
This is my first political convention. It's exciting. When I see it on the news, I can say I worked right there, at that spot. My mother is a carpenter.
Now, I do this and I love it. When you do the rough carpentry and then you do the finished carpentry, you can feel good about it. You can see the work you've done. . . I would not allow my children to be carpenters. I would like them to be an architect or something rather than be out in the cold doing hard labor.
I'm usually the only woman carpenter, but sometimes there are women electricians or plumbers. Usually, there are five to six of us, tops, on a job with hundreds of people.
I came in when all the negativity was going away. So, I don't get bad comments from the guys.
EXECUTIVE CHEF
Name: Paul Janeway
Age: 40
Employer: Delaware North Cos.
Currently, I am a corporate traveling support chef. I go to openings like PETCO Park in San Diego. I was also at the John F. Kennedy Space Center for the Astronaut Hall of Fame induction. I go in to lend a hand and help out. I'm away three to four weeks at a time, and then I go home to El Paso, Texas, for five to six days.
I have a baby girl who is almost four months old. I'm away a lot, but the company is grateful to me and my family. . . I went to the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York. I also cooked in the Marine Corps for four years. My interest in cooking came from my grandmother. She immigrated from Germany in 1903. She was my mentor. In my 25-year career, I've seen half of Southeast Asia, and almost every region in the United States. But I haven't covered a political convention. I'm very excited. I'll be doing food service for VIPs out of an antique train . . . We placed a $13,000 order just for the suites at the DNC, for catering. And that's only a piece of the catering.
HOUSEKEEPING SUPERVISOR
Name: Josefina Tejada
Age: 38
Employer: Delaware North Cos., at The FleetCenter
My job for the DNC is to make sure all the chairs, tables, drapes, computers, phones -- everything people in the media will need for the convention -- are set up in the right place.
I started at the FleetCenter in 1995. I'm from the Dominican Republic. I came to the United States in 1985. My father was here already, part of my family was here. Everybody talked about America. So, I got it in my mind that someday I would come here . . . I think it's a good thing having the convention in Boston . . . but it could be complicated for people getting to work. A lot of traffic. To me, this is one of the most important events we've had at the FleetCenter, and I've worked every single event here.
Right now, I work at least 12 hours per day. I have to coordinate my group. . . My group changes every day. Sometimes it's 50 men and sometimes it's 20. It all depends on the amount of trucks they have to unload.
SPRINKLER FITTER
Name: Chris Hanley
Age: 32
Union: Sprinkler Fitter's Union Local 550
Employer: Northeast Sprinkler , a joint venture with Shawmut Design and Construction
The convention is putting people to work and bringing money into the city. If I can do anything to help the event, I will. . . sprinkler fitters are part of fire protection. We use this machine to cut the pipes, groove the pipes, thread them and put the fittings on. I think I've threaded a few hundred feet of steel piping just since I've been here . . . People start off at $17 an hour, but now we go up to $39.69 per hour (for a journeyman). I'm a master licensed sprinkler fitter.
Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.
