Longtime glass worker recalls his years at the plant

Talk with John B. Anderson about the old days, and the names start tumbling out.
“McCombs, Carver, Frank Friend … Harry McDonald, Al Diener, young Jack Malloy, Sidney Manor, Bob Countryman … Jack Mink, Bud Hare, Truman “Bud” Gutshall, George Wise …”
With each recollection and each story, another name comes up from the old days.
Sitting before a wood stove at Anderson’s home in Dunkirk just down the street from what is today Verallia, the litany of names seems appropriate.
After all, the glass container plant on Dunkirk’s east side has been called many things over the years.
It was Hart Glass when John Anderson went to work there.
That was back in 1936 or ’37.
It was Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corp. when he retired. In between, it was Armstrong Cork for awhile.
And since Kerr, it has been Ball-Foster, Ball InCon, and Saint-Gobain Glass Containers before becoming Verallia.
With this week’s news that Ardagh Group is acquiring Verallia from Saint-Gobain, another name change is likely to be on the horizon.
“I was out at the factory for 43 years,” Anderson said last week while celebrating his 96th birthday
Thirty-five of those were at “the hot end,” a tough working environment, particularly back when Anderson hired on.
“When I started out there, I started in the packing room,” he recalled. Packing also involved inspection and quality control. “If you packed bad ware, you had to re-pack ’em.”
After seven years in packing he worked his way into an apprentice position, then became an operator, making 45 baby food jars a minute.
“I made beer bottles, whiskey bottles, baby food, Evenflo, Barbasol,” he said.
“I made a good living out there. I started in at 24 cents an hour.”
Anderson can’t remember when Hart sold to Armstrong Cork. But other memories stand out.
“I was in the first strike they had out there,” he said. “$10 to $11 a week didn’t go very far.” Then again, he added, you could buy six gallons of gasoline for a dollar.
Anderson first lived in a factory-owned house, paying $11 a month rent. “And they (the company) paid the water.”
“Harry McDonald, he was the plant manager,” recalled Anderson. “He’d bring all the operators together” to talk about maintaining quality and reaching production goals.
Often, balancing speed and quality became a sore spot. “I got into it with Jack Mink one time” over the speed of production, Anderson said.
A member of the Glass Bottle Blowers Association, Anderson was a union steward for a time. “We need unions,” he said.
Though “the hot end” was a challenging place to work, the company did its best to keep it safe.
“When I went out there, we had an operator who had a hand off. … But the only thing I lost out there was a lot of sweat,” said Anderson. “I worked in the hot end for 35 years, and I only saw three guys carried out” because of the heat.
Four times since his retirement in 1979, he’s gone back to the plant for one of its tours during Glass Days, finding it a very different place.
“I’d be absolutely lost if I went back out there,” he said, noting the huge changes in technology and the workplace.
These days, Anderson does his best to keep his mind sharp. Though his vision is failing, his spirit is strong.
Names of co-workers continue to tumble out. “All them old guys are dead,” he said. “I don’t know why I’m living.”

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