Back in 2008 nobody in the trades was doing much. The Union guys were sitting in the Union Halls playing Euchre.
Anyway I had this huge project going. It was a 5 story climate controlled mini storage right on the Detroit/East Pointe border. The bottom floor was approximately 35000 square feet requiring about 500 yards of concrete to a thickness of 5 inches. I planned on putting that first floor down in one pour. I had 6 different concrete companies supplying the mix and there were 15 trucks lined up on a main Detroit road at 6 am.
This is a lot of concrete. So I had rented a laser scree to put the cement down and 3 riding power trowels with 2 sets of 5 blades each one 6 feet long. This si some serious equipment and none of my guys had ever run a laser scree. So I hired a buddy of mine to operate it. About half hour in all the Union BAs showed up and 20 minutes later they had me picketed. Then even bigger big wigs showed up in suits.
My buddy was a 25 year union mason. When the BAs figured this out they forced him to stop work. When he at first refused they threatened his pension. All the guy wanted was a good day of work and a bit of cash in his pocket instead of sitting idle in the Hall playing Euchre. But he had to protect his pension.
We tried using the scree but we werent very good at it and so we were forced to hand scree with a 16 foot-2 man board. It was dicey but we got it down and finished mostly because I had the rider trowels. I could see the BAs watching hoping we would fail and it would bankrupt me.
Back in 2008 nobody in the trades was doing much. The Union guys were sitting in the Union Halls playing Euchre.
Anyway I had this huge project going. It was a 5 story climate controlled mini storage right on the Detroit/East Pointe border. The bottom floor was approximately 35000 square feet requiring about 500 yards of concrete to a thickness of 5 inches. I planned on putting that first floor down in one pour. I had 6 different concrete companies supplying the mix and there were 15 trucks lined up on a main Detroit road at 6 am.
This is a lot of concrete. So I had rented a laser scree to put the cement down and 3 riding power trowels with 2 sets of 5 blades each one 6 feet long. This si some serious equipment and none of my guys had ever run a laser scree. So I hired a buddy of mine to operate it. About half hour in all the Union BAs showed up and 20 minutes later they had me picketed. Then even bigger big wigs showed up in suits.
My buddy was a 25 year union mason. When the BAs figured this out they forced him to stop work. When he at first refused they threatened his pension. All the guy wanted was a good day of work and a bit of cash in his pocket instead of sitting idle in the Hall playing Euchre. But he had to protect his pension.
We tried using the scree but we werent very good at it and so we were forced to hand scree with a 16 foot-2 man board. It was dicey but we got it down and finished mostly because I had the rider trowels. I could see the BAs watching hoping we would fail and it would bankrupt me.
Fuck the Union bosses, they are shit.