13 yards of concrete: Chapter 23
Before joining the union I worked for a small construction outfit that built houses, duplexes and apartments. This was a non-union shop. These were bad times as far as the economy went. I was thankful that I had a job.Physically, I was fit as a fiddle. This was back breaking work and by the end of the day, there were times when my muscles ached. At night I would go to the library and read all the books on different construction methods and techniques. In a couple of months I had read every book on construction techniques that was available at our local library. With my maths background I had no trouble understanding the simple formulas for calculating load bearing walls, steps and risers and how to lay them out. The different roof styles, laying out bird's mouth cuts and angles. During the day all these principles were put to practice and reinforced in my mind.
Mr. Keys was my foreman at this time. He was great guy and an excellent carpenter. During our lunch breaks I would ask him all kinds of questions. He enjoyed this.
The layout guy:
It's the lead carpenters job to do "the lay-out" work. This is where every opening for doors and windows is layed out. The length of the walls, corners, headers, cripples, stairs etc are all laid out. This information is taken off the master blue-print.
Mr. Key's soon realised that I was really good at laying out the grids etc. Next thing you know, I was made the lead carpenter. I also got a dollar an hour raise in my miserable pay scale.
The size of our crew varied depending on the size of the job. On smaller jobs there would be only 4 of us with one guy acting as the foreman. On big apartment complexes there would be 12 of us split up into 3 crews. That meant there were 3 fore-men on bigger job sites.
My nightmare begins:
When the news hit town that I had been "promoted" to be the lead-man and that I had been awarded an extra dollar per hour in my pay scale, some folks didn't like it. There were guys who had been on the job a lot longer than me. The fact that I was making more than some of these veterans was a sore point. My life became a living hell. A few guys would rave and rant all day aiming their venom directly at me.
I went over to see Mr. Keys...and told him what was going on. He was well aware of this and told me this was to be expected. He had no other words of wisdom for me....I was on my own.
Things went from bad to worse. I dreaded going to work. I put up with this out of necessity....I needed the job. It was at this time that I started to look for a different job and by a miracle I ended up with the union.
As I look back at my life , I realise that every disaster was a blessing in disguise. The good Lord has a strange way of nudging one in the right direction. Years later I would run into these guys....they were still carpenters....and I would say a silent prayer for them.
People abhor change. So beware when instituting new policies or getting new guys into your plant. The old management will resort to every dirty trick in the book to sabotage your new policies and changes.
