Against the Grain

Abstract

In mid-April 2006, Djar Horn, a third-year journeyman carpenter and member of Local 157 of the New York District Council of Carpenters, went to work for Metropolitan—a subcontractor “rehabbing” an old Wall Street hotel. At the time, she told her foreman she was three and-a-half-months pregnant. Installing doors, bathrooms, and trim for the windows, Horn wore a respirator as protection from the formaldehyde in the MDS, the “wood-like” product she was installing. Working with a crew of 30 men, some of whom she knew from prior jobs, Horn was the only female carpenter.