I am a pack rat. Not a secret. Today, going through some old boxes I found several gems, and this picture below is one of them. A business card from MICOR – The Micrographics Corporation. I could not find their logo anywhere online so figured I would blog about it and post a picture of the business card I was given, with what I guess was my employee number written on it. I worked there from 1988 to 1991.
I was a data entry clerk, keying from microfiche in the dark on the third shift.. that was rough! I keyed on very tough old keyboards as well as a Univac system that would output to punch cards to be fed into other systems. I am sometimes a very hard typist and get comments from it. If not from frustration or anger when typing, if I am typing hard I believe it is from my beginning days of data entry when I needed to slam the keys from an inch or two back in order for the key to register. I had carpal tunnel surgery in my right wrist. They wouldn’t do both at the same time back then, for good reason.
Many long nights, working right into my day job, I will never forget. My only good memory about working there was my first kiss; a side road from Micor’s parking lot, my first boyfriend and I we were on break. 😉
Oh, note: back then my name wasn’t Richie. It was Kenneth E Harmon III. Another story.
Found business card:
Micor
The Micrographics Corporation
800 Clarmont Avenue
Bensalem, PA 19020
(215) 245-0411
A Closed Shop Micor Micrographics In Bensalem Lays Off All 160 Employees
http://articles.philly.com/1992-04-21/business/26002607_1_micor-representation-textile-workers-union
When payday rolled around at Micor Micrographics Corp. on Good Friday, the news wasn’t very good.
Employees who were expecting paychecks for the previous two weeks were told that there wasn’t any money to pay them, according to Georgia Winters, who has worked at the Bensalem, Bucks County, company for seven years.
Company president Edward W. Mackin said late yesterday that Micor’s 160 employees have since been told they were laid off as of last Friday morning.
But employees said they still haven’t gotten pink slips, so they can’t apply for unemployment benefits. Employees are expected to meet with company officials this morning.
Micor, which has annual sales of $10 million, specializes in microfilming documents.
The story of Micor is something of a mess that involves:
* A $3.3 million judgment won by Virginia-based Oracle Complex Systems last year in a suit over a contract dispute. An order from U.S. District Court yesterday, after a hearing last Wednesday, gives Oracle the right to a ”judicial sale” to recover its money.
* About $2 million that Micor owes to CoreStates Financial. Mackin said the bank was reluctant to finance the company’s payroll for work performed over the past three weeks.
* A labor-organizing dispute. Officials of the Philadelphia Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union claim at least one employee was illegally fired because she had been pushing for union representation. Mackin said she had been fired for “many problems with her performance over a long period of time.”
Winters, who worked as a lead tech-camera operator in the rotary department, said workers were confused.
When first-shift workers reported to work yesterday, they were told they’d be volunteers. Nonetheless, Winters said that if workers didn’t clock-in, they wouldn’t be eligible for unemployment compensation.
“Some people are in there working, some people are just sitting around, shaking their heads. They don’t know what to do.”
Mackin, meanwhile, called the period starting last Wednesday “probably the worst five days in my 50 years.”
He said CoreStates sent appraisers to the firm yesterday so it could be liquidated for recovery of $2 million that CoreStates had lent the firm. CoreStates was unable to comment.
The workers are split 66 to 66 in their vote on whether to join the union, Mackin said.
If an administrative law judge rules that the woman was fired illegally, as the union alleges, her ballot then would be counted, said Mike Slott, a union representative. That presumably would give the union official representation – if the company is sold and the employees’ jobs are saved.
