Reviews13
Filters:
Rating
Language
Sort:
Most recent

I worked here as a "blue cap" or salaried worker i...

I worked here as a "blue cap" or salaried worker in the summer of 2003; over a 2 week period, I would work midnight to noon, then have the next day off, then work midnight to noon the next day, etc. I can't wrap my mind around why I accepted the job, why I punished my body working 12 hour graveyard shifts, but it was my only offer at the time and it seemed like an adventure to work so far away from civilization.

Caught pneumonia due to the freezing cold air conditioning in the van as it drove us all back to Valley Fair Mall, after our 12-hour, midnight to noon shift. I was told that I was lucky to have this shift since others at the plant had to work midnight to noon one week and noon to midnight on alternating weeks or pay periods. I'm not sure why people work out there at all...that is, until you consider Marblehead (closed) that was out there and the other plants that have closed out there. One must escape the urban death maze of SLC and looks for peaceful work in the desert of Deseret, where limited options exist.

It's hard to describe this place because it paid well and seeing the sunrise from the Western side of the Great Salt Lake is incredibly and bewilderingly beautiful. Drove my 1980's Dodge Colt out to work once or twice. Not sure how I didn't fall asleep and crash on the way home.

Bill Thompson, the lab manager, was friendly and welcoming and patient. I didn't comprehend most of what he explained in the interview but he hired me anyway and I am very grateful for that. Later in the summer he encouraged us to put on our happy faces and clean the lab when potential buyers from China came for a visit. Most of the lab staff was highly intelligent; patient with training me (preparing standards for the ICP-OES at 6am, halfway through the shift requires more concentration than you'd think; preparing the Mercuric Chloride for testing, as well); some of them described working out there in the winter when the plant has Chlorine clouds on the ground and being forced to breathe as you walk through it, to your station. Others described when the toxic air would eat the paint off their cars in the parking lot. Ms/Mrs. Torres in HR is present but I'm not sure I'd say helpful.

The father of a close friend of mine owned all the vending machines at the plant (which he has since sold). Once he came to refill the machines and found one of them had been pried open with a crowbar, all the money and food had been removed. Security at the plant offered no assistance whatsoever.

The EPA listing it as the worst toxic polluter in the country is something I'd encourage you to think about. The owner of MagCorp, Ira Rennert, declared bankruptcy, reincorporated, and bought the company back from himself under the name of US Magnesium (perhaps this is a problem with corporate law in the US, not so much Ira acting badly); maybe this bothers you but since its the only Magnesium producer in the entire Northern Hemisphere, maybe it's not so bad. If I was an investor though, I'd bet on China displacing US Mag, horizontally, vertically, and possibly quicker than incrementally due to ever increasing federal regulations which are passed as if hundreds of thousands of families don't depend on work from places such as US Mag.

The mad desperation of the desert, the inversion of pollution, the Chlorine gas clouds both from US Mag and from testing at Dugway (not to mention their nerve gas testing), the elevation of the Wasatch Front, etc. contribute to a disproportionately high amount of genetic bad luck in the form of mental disorders, health problems, etc. that the population suffer scream for a mass exodus.