After making my presence known to the local Business Agent, I found a place to stay, the Holiday Inn in Edison. What a dump! But it was the best around and it had a restaurant attached, so I stayed.
Most mornings I would make my way over to the restaurant, hoping that the inside door would be open and I wouldn’t have to go outside to get to the restaurant. (Rarely was it open) Once there, a dependably surly waitress would take my order while I kicked the remains of someone’s dinner from the night before out from under my feet in the booth.
I remember one particularly cold morning. The heater in my room had stopped working for some reason and so I quickly dressed and headed down for a cup of hot coffee. As I entered the hallway that led to the restaurant I was suddenly enveloped in a thick fog. A steam pipe had broken and the hot moist air was filling the corridor (instead of my room heater) making it like a sauna.
But a sauna was definitely better than conditions on the jobsite. The general contractor wasn’t interested in supplying expensive propane heat for the project and was doing his best to ignore our pleas for some warmth. We showed him the job specs that stated that he was responsible for the heating of the entire project…not just his job trailer. He ignored us. We finally had to threaten him with a lawsuit to get some heat into the building.
Once I had some heat I was able to start hiring, and although I continued to ask for skilled steel framers, I was given wood butchers instead. I then had to start a very basic, “beginning framer” class for my employees before I could turn them loose to begin working.
A typical carpenter that worked for me here had spent most of his career working on concrete forms and rough framing, while I needed men who could frame with steel (and had the right tools) and work to an accuracy of plus or minus 1/16th of an inch. Most of these carpenters had never noticed that their tape measures had such small increments!
To be honest; most of the men I hired were nice guys and really wanted to learn. My problem was the fact that we hadn’t counted on this problem when we bid the job, so on the job training was eating away at any profits we might hope for.
One of the men, Tony, was nice enough to ask me to come over for dinner one Sunday evening and so I was able to enjoy that time with him and his family. And while I was there, I asked him why he was still paying ‘travelers” dues to the union, since it was obvious that he lived in the town and had been there for a long time. He had grown up there. He explained that Eddie had told him that if he behaved himself he would eventually get a chance to join the local union and stop paying the $10 a month. Tony’s father was a member and that was going to help as well. I told him that what Eddie was doing was illegal and asked why didn’t the members do something about it? He said that if he complained, Eddie would only give him cold and dirty work, if he gave him any work at all. Tony wasn’t interested in working in a box culvert all winter, forming up for concrete. The job he had with us that winter was his reward for being a “good guy”.
Now I knew… it was going to be a long, long winter in New Jersey. Could it get worse? Of course!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Buffum's
I guess it's time for me to continue... My last story was all about the project in Connecticut and I still have years and years of memories.
I believe it was about a year after the finish of the Connecticut job when I received an invitation from my boss to run a similar project in New Jersey. The project was going to be a new Buffum's department store in Edison, New Jersey.
Why not? I had never been to New Jersey before and I knew it was close enough to New York City for me to make a weekend trip there if I wanted to. So I agreed and we began to make plans and load up gang boxes with the equipment needed.
After all was packed and on it's way, I boarded a plane for a long trip to Newark. And when I arrived I found that New Jersey was covered in snow. Great! So the first thing I had to do was to find a hotel and then, second, go to New Brunswick and the Sears store to stock up on winter clothing.
The next day I was dressed for the weather and made an appearance at the local Carpenter's Union hall to register as a "traveler" and to request some men for the job. This was an eye opener for me.
The Business Agent (BA) was a diamond ring wearing tough guy named Eddie. He told me that it would cost me 10 bucks, cash...per month. OK. But then he took my money and slid it into the front pocket of his pants and didn't offer any receipt. I then asked about the availability of skilled metal framers; his eply was, "My men can do... anything." Now I knew what I was facing. And to prove it, he sent me my first man on the job, a millwright. A 65 year old millwright.
Being the first man hired gives this man a certain privilege; he becomes the "shop steward" and must be the last man fired. This was my second experience with corrupt union officials and it would turn out to be the worst. Power always corrupts, but in New Jersey it became an art form.
Part of that art... it turned out that Eddie loved to play pinochle; high dollar pinochle and he needed pocket money for that, so he kept almost 1,500 men on the books as "travelers" and a few hundred men were locals, despite the fact that most of the "travelers" had lived in the area for years. Most of my crew were looking forward to the day when Eddie would allow them to join the local. Let's see, 1,500 x $10 a month...pretty good money!
I believe it was about a year after the finish of the Connecticut job when I received an invitation from my boss to run a similar project in New Jersey. The project was going to be a new Buffum's department store in Edison, New Jersey.
Why not? I had never been to New Jersey before and I knew it was close enough to New York City for me to make a weekend trip there if I wanted to. So I agreed and we began to make plans and load up gang boxes with the equipment needed.
After all was packed and on it's way, I boarded a plane for a long trip to Newark. And when I arrived I found that New Jersey was covered in snow. Great! So the first thing I had to do was to find a hotel and then, second, go to New Brunswick and the Sears store to stock up on winter clothing.
The next day I was dressed for the weather and made an appearance at the local Carpenter's Union hall to register as a "traveler" and to request some men for the job. This was an eye opener for me.
The Business Agent (BA) was a diamond ring wearing tough guy named Eddie. He told me that it would cost me 10 bucks, cash...per month. OK. But then he took my money and slid it into the front pocket of his pants and didn't offer any receipt. I then asked about the availability of skilled metal framers; his eply was, "My men can do... anything." Now I knew what I was facing. And to prove it, he sent me my first man on the job, a millwright. A 65 year old millwright.
Being the first man hired gives this man a certain privilege; he becomes the "shop steward" and must be the last man fired. This was my second experience with corrupt union officials and it would turn out to be the worst. Power always corrupts, but in New Jersey it became an art form.
Part of that art... it turned out that Eddie loved to play pinochle; high dollar pinochle and he needed pocket money for that, so he kept almost 1,500 men on the books as "travelers" and a few hundred men were locals, despite the fact that most of the "travelers" had lived in the area for years. Most of my crew were looking forward to the day when Eddie would allow them to join the local. Let's see, 1,500 x $10 a month...pretty good money!
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Memories
This morning I headed out early to get some work done at the Plant Barn. And early meant that it was cold... which brought back memories of many jobs that began in the cold of morning.
The first third of my career was spent in Southern California and if I ever complained about the cold back then; please forgive me! When we moved to Northern California I began a whole new life in construction, one that involved getting dressed in long johns at 4 in the morning, followed by heavy pants, shirts, sweatshirts, thermal boots, etc; all so that I would be prepared for the long cold day atop some high-rise hotel project in downtown Reno. A place where the wind always blew. And my nose always ran...
Funny how memories will pop up. As I've been driving into Chico in the mornings, I pass a construction site at the University. Turner Construction is the General Contractor and I know them well. (Good and bad memories) I watched them driving piles earlier in the year and now they are involved in the footings and all of the underground electrical and plumbing. As I watch the workers while passing the site, I like the fact that I know exactly what each one is doing and why... been there, done that. If I lived closer, I would spend part of my day parked nearby and with a coffee in my hand while I watched the building take shape.
The first third of my career was spent in Southern California and if I ever complained about the cold back then; please forgive me! When we moved to Northern California I began a whole new life in construction, one that involved getting dressed in long johns at 4 in the morning, followed by heavy pants, shirts, sweatshirts, thermal boots, etc; all so that I would be prepared for the long cold day atop some high-rise hotel project in downtown Reno. A place where the wind always blew. And my nose always ran...
Funny how memories will pop up. As I've been driving into Chico in the mornings, I pass a construction site at the University. Turner Construction is the General Contractor and I know them well. (Good and bad memories) I watched them driving piles earlier in the year and now they are involved in the footings and all of the underground electrical and plumbing. As I watch the workers while passing the site, I like the fact that I know exactly what each one is doing and why... been there, done that. If I lived closer, I would spend part of my day parked nearby and with a coffee in my hand while I watched the building take shape.
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