LIFE AT THE CANNERY :
When the salmon life ended , my job began . Canneries dot the rivers and inlets of the Alaskan coast from the south and out to the peninsula . They look and feel like company towns – complete with houses for the workers , cafeterias , and warehouses slopping towards the water ’ s edge where the ships come in to unload fish .
In the summer of 2016 , I went to work at a Salmon cannery far out in the 49 th state and didn ’ t expect to do much other than work and make good money . Everyone I knew who had worked at a Cannery before assured me it was nothing but a miserable time . That I was subjecting myself to nothing but long hours doing backbreaking work next to salty , harsh people
What I actually found in the land of the midnight sun was not what I expected . A great swath of people that worked at the cannery were from all ages and from places all over the map . There were college students trying to make their booze money for the next semester , there were lifers who had been canning since the Nixon administration . There were train hoppers who came for the free three meals a day and housing . And other people who had never left their home states of Idaho or South Dakota .
A huge portion of the college students came from the Philippines and their majors were tangentially related to the fishing industry . But beside from them , there were people from Puerto Rico , The Ukraine , The DR , Somalia , Mexico , Italy , and many other countries .
All of us were up in Alaska together with limited wifi , no TV and terrible phone service . The primitive conditions forced us all to talk to each other . In our off hours , we ’ d teach others the dirty words of our perspective languages and our favorite card games .
When the fish first came in , for the most part , we worked regular shifts of eight-hour days . It was only for a rushed period for a week in the middle of July when we were placed on sixteen-hour shifts . Which meant an eighthour shift , a meal break , and then back to work for another eight .
Those sixteen hour shifts sound worse than they actually were . Especially since all the jobs were so specialized . For example , if you were working at the saw that cuts off the fish ’ s heads , you were just doing that for hours upon hours . Since every position was so regimented and simple , the work ended up being meditative . The only real pressure was being on your feet for such a long period of time . But that ’ s why they invented insoles .
Photo by Len Turner from Lufkin , TX
14 THE CONE - ISSUE # 11 - 2017