Questions of the week of 8/26/18

All the drywall guys I’ve seen couldn’t care less about gaps and broken corners.
They keep saying “the taper will fix it”. :wink:

Yeah, and when I was a carpenter the tapers would say “the trim guy will fix it”. An I never got to sat nuttin! :frowning:

Don’t forget the Painters ******** about the taping job. :wink:
Seemed like a vicious circle of pointing fingers, wasn’t it.?

That’s one of the reasons I decided to work for myself most of my life, Marcel.

I went to the local union back in the late seventies to take the test to join. The big shot behind the desk asked me if I wanted a written or oral test. I said oral test, please. And, he asked if I was ready right then? I didn’t have anything else planned then so I said yes, sir.

Well, after 2 hours, or more, (I don’t really remember.) he said that I passed and all I had to do then was pay him something like $1,000 and he would see if he could put me to work in the next month, or so.

I about sh*t and said no thanks. When you get me working you can take it out of my pay checks for the dues…little by little. He said that is not how it works around here and if I wanted to work around here I had to pay the $1,000 up front. I said no thank you and left and never looked back. A few years later the carpenter’s local fell apart around my town and they had to pull union workers from down state for the bigger jobs that required it. Or, the locals had to travel long distances…like 150 to 250 miles one way to work.

I’m glad I choose to work for myself. :smiley:

Similar road Larry. I joined the Carpenters Union in Florida at 19 and had to pay $250 and $10 a week for dues. Took the written test and past and sat on the bench for 3 days to get a job.
After 4 months, somebody blew up the Union Hall and they raised the dues to $15.
I hi-tailed back to Maine and work with the Old Man. But the money was good down there at the time. $5.15 an hour vs. $2.50 in Maine non-Union.
Went Commercial after a few years and went to work as a Supervisor for the same Company for 40 years.
One does better I believe working for himself. My Old Man told me that and as like everyone else at that age, we don’t listen. ;):slight_smile:

Get ahold of me anytime if I can help any way, Marcel. I’ll do what I can. :slight_smile: