Originally Posted by
TroyOz
In 1974, when I applied at the hall, the Business Agent told me (as he pointed to a stack of papers 3 feet tall) that was how many were in front of me. I kinda sighed and he said, but, I never see them again after they made their application. I took that as a signal and started showing up in the hall early in the morning to have a coffee with the BA before I had to be at my job. It turned out to be a good move - after a couple of months, I got a call to come to hall and pick up slip for a job at a refinery construction site.
I was working as a framer building hotels rooms at $2.10 an hour (minimum was $1.65). The oiler job paid $5.55 an hour plus heath insurance and retirement contributions. I was giddy. Within 2 years I was running the crane myself (pile driver at a tank farm site) and making $9.10 an hour. That was good money in 76'.
After most of the work went to Brown and Root and other non-union companies in the industrial construction sector, I went a different direction. For a tradesman, nothing is better than Union.