I've been off the grid for a little while. I've felt the need to keep quiet and to think and to reflect. Plus, I think it's been too damn hot to type! I'm working out at LaCygne and there have been some days lately when I've had to go up and stand next to the boiler just to cool off! Ok, not very funny, I know. That's why I'm an Ironworker and not a stand up comedian.
Speaking of LaCygne, we are out there working under the National Construction Agreement. Like many of the ancillary agreements that we work under, such as the National Maintenance Agreement and the Presidents Agreement, it tends to be pretty contractor friendly. One of the main things that I take issue with is that there are no breaks in the contract. Incidentally, the other contracts that I mentioned do not recognize organized breaks either, but I've yet to work on a job under those agreements where breaks were not taken. This project, however, is different. One of the first things we are told is that there are no breaks. As General Foreman, I have been threatened with being fired, as well as some of the guys who work for me, simply for them sitting in a hot connex box, in their work area, and sitting down for 10 minutes to have a snack and a drink.
So I'm not really sure what the answer is to this problem. You may or may not know that before somewhere around 1997 or so, we never had breaks in our local agreement. That didn't really matter, though, because, except for employees of J.E. Dunn, everyone took a morning break (and none in the afternoon.) This was part of the old tradition that had been passed down to all of us from our elders: "You make your own conditions." That is what we were told and that is what we did. That is where the "wobble" came from. If conditions were not right on the job, there would often be a sickness that caused everyone to have to go home.
Case in point: While working for Havens in the 90s, on the 28 story at 12th and Walnut, we had iron set up to the 15th floor. The building was adjacent to a 7 story parking garage, so we could ride an elevator from the ground to the top of the garage, but there was still no manlift, running, even though we were 8 stories above the top of the garage. I think, but I'm not certain, that Walton was the general contractor, and they said they did not have a permit for the manlift yet. We had been complaining, but to no avail. Well, finally, we had a welder who had a case of kidney stones that put him in so much pain that his welders helper had to carry him down the stairs to get to the elevator. That was the final straw for everyone on the job. One of those super contagious, fast moving flu bugs struck and everyone had to leave for the day. Imagine our surprise when, amazingly, a permit was issued and the manlift was running the next day when we came back to work. It's funny how that stuff happens.
Am I saying that everyone at LaCygne needs to get sick? No, that's not what I'm saying, because here's how this works: If everyone gets sick, our hall is subject to a nice big fine. If it happens again, the fine gets bigger. At some point, that becomes pretty counter productive. And if that happens enough, then International steps in, and I don't think for one minute that they necessarily have yours and my best interests in mind. They will absolutely throw us under the bus in a heartbeat in a circumstance such as this.
Here's the other side of it: Kiewit (the contractor over the LaCygne project and who I'm currently working for) preaches safety like crazy. They're always telling us to "keep your head in the game" and, "It's Monday (or Friday) and you've just gotten back from the weekend (or you're getting ready for the weekend) so you really need to pay attention so you don't get hurt. They take the stance that every accident is avoidable and if you get hurt you must have been doing something wrong, yet they completely ignore the fact that if you have somebody working their ass off for four hours straight, with no break, they are not as able to stay focused and alert. They get tired and hungry. Has no one ever pointed that out to them? And if not, why has that argument never been made? I'm pretty sure that the answer, at least as far as the National Construction Agreement goes, is that we are trying so hard to compete with non-union workers, that we have decided we need to work like they do.
Now, I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate for a minute, and ask this question: Should a contractor be expected to absorb the cost of a break that drags out to 20, 25, 30 or even 40 minutes? I would say no. So our responsibility is to get our conditions and to, at the same time, police ourselves, so that we don't get out of control. Because non-union workers are doing our jobs, and although we are (or at least we should be) much better at our jobs than they are, the fact remains that they are doing them much cheaper than we are. My point is that our greater skill and productivity can make up for a couple of 10 minute breaks, but it can't necessarily make up for two 30 minute breaks and a 45 minute lunch. We have to perform in order to maintain our jobsite conditions.
This is just one small issue among many that are out there for us. I don't think that we can just roll over and take whatever is given to us. Now, more than ever, those in power are going to try and strip more and more of the benefits and conditions that we have, from us. A time is coming, and it is going to be soon, when we are going to have to be willing to make the kinds of sacrifices that our elders made. And although I am speaking of Ironworkers specifically, and unions in general, I mean it for everyone in society today who is not part of the very, very wealthy. What we are experiencing in organized labor is a microcosm of what is happening in the world today. We are going to have to make a stand, not just on the jobsite, but everywhere else too.
In the future I would like to begin to try to link the problems of unions, our problems, to the problems we face as a nation, and as a people.
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