A labor union is structured much like any other business.  In simplest terms there is a Boss, a Superintendant, and the worker bees.  However a difference occurs with the regulatory restrictions to occupational work.

For example, one of my friends was employed as a painter for a large corporation.  He was a Union Painter.  He was assigned to paint a metal stairway and hand rail.

In this instance the stairway and hand rail were covered in grease.  Before he could apply paint to the job the grease had to be cleaned off.  He was certainly qualified and had the proper materials and cleaning agent to do so, but this portion of the job was assigned to the Laborer’s Union.

He properly approached the Laborer’s Union Steward and made his request for a laborer to clean the grease off the stairway and hand rail.  The reply was; “We’ll do it when we get to it.”

So my friend waited a few days working on other things while he awaited the completion of the cleaning.  The Boss came by and wondered why the stairway and hand rail weren’t painted yet.  Upon being told that the job was awaiting the cleaning job by the Laborer’s Union the Boss said he would see to it.

A couple more days went by with no cleaning having been done.  Tired of waiting anymore, the painter did the paint job, grease and all.  Of course it wouldn’t have lasted very long.  The cost of  cleaning the grease on the painted parts would be more expensive, as well as having to repaint.

This type of activity is common in the Unions.

Back in the ‘60s while I was on a Government job in Montana we were working on about 100 different sites scattered around the countryside.  The sites were approximately 6 miles apart in all directions and tied to a control center located equidistantly from a number of sites.

One part of the job required control wiring to be fed through plastic piping/conduit to all of the sites.  To prevent condensation in the pipe, refrigerated air was blown through the pipe.  From time to time it was necessary to splice the control wiring because they did not have a control wire cable that was 6 miles long.

The Union Electricians were not allowed to work on this wiring because we were not in the correct Union for control wiring.  (I believe it was some sort of Fiber Optic Union.)  This particular Union did not allow its membership to exceed a specific number.  The only way to get in that union was to have a member die or retire.

When a splice was necessary, a tent would be set up over the area of the splice.  A helper would assist in the set up of the tent and equipment.  After setting up the tent, the helper would stand guard outside the door of the tent while the splice was made in secrecy.

To get the “secret” splice made, a call went out to this union and a man would be flown in to the job.  He would be put up in the best hotel, fed at the best restaurants, and paid high wages.  No one cared about costs on Government jobs.  The Government had an unending supply of money.

Sometime later I spoke to a telephone cable splicer and he said that was all foolishness, because any telephone splicer could do that job.

They just weren’t in the same Union.

And that’s where the money goes.

I guess you could say I am German-American.  Mostly.  There was one job I was on where one of the carpenters was African-American.  Totally.  Every so often he would come into the room where I was working and ask what I needed.  I would reply: “I don’t need anything.”

He would reply: “I thought I heard you call me.”

This would happen two or three times a day.  Finally one time he asked my name.  I told him “Adrian.”  He said; “That’s what it is.  My name is Maynard.  When they call you I think they are calling me.”

As he was leaving the room I was working in, he paused at the door, looked back at me for a short time and then he said; “And we don’t look anything alike!”

On the same job, the carpenters were using metal lath.  Metal lath is designed to hold plaster.  It comes in 4×8 sheets.  When they would hold the sheets up to the wall to fasten them, they would call to each other to inform the other worker that the sheet was ready for nailing.

The electrician I was working with was named Mark.  When the carpenters were ready to nail they would say so by calling “mark”, meaning the sheet was properly placed.

They kept my fellow electrician running.

I guess there was a lot of running back and forth on that job.

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Another fellow who was pretty much on the trigger was on the same job as I was from time to time.

One instance I remember about him was when he was standing on the very top rung of a five foot ladder.  Another boy wanted to use the ladder so he was standing by waiting for it.  Eventually he grew tired of waiting for the guy to get finished and asked him; “How long are you going to need that ladder?”

The guy on the ladder very deliberately turned around and counted the steps on the ladder.

“One, Two, Three, Four, Five – about five feet.”

Isn’t the English language amazing?

Plowing snow is a definite part of winter life in Montana and North Dakota.  Blowing snow is also part and parcel of winter living in that part of the country.

When it gets way below zero, you have to have some sort of heat to keep the house from freezing up.  After electricity was brought in to the farms and ranches, the farmers and ranchers had become used to having electricity for everything and they depended upon it.

One time, when we had had a heavy snow with strong wind, there were drifts all over.  The roads were pretty much impassable.  One farmer, who lived about 20 miles out of town, had his power lines go down in the storm.

Though this farmer heated with a propane furnace, without electricity there was no way to circulate the heat through the house.  It was possible to start the fire manually but if left without air circulation, definitely the furnace would be endangered and very likely the house.

Even today I don’t know how he got word into the power company that he was in desperate need of power, but they were advised of his situation somehow.  The power company requested a snow plow from the County Road Department so that they could get out and repair the line.

At night the plows came back.  The next morning all the plowing had to be re-done because the roads were drifted shut again.  This happened over and over again for a week or more before the power company finally got the power back on to the farmer’s home.

Meanwhile the farmer, being an ingenious fellow, had done some self-help.  He had taken one of the children’s bicycles down into his basement, mounted it up on blocks, taken the rear tire off of the rim, and placed a v-belt (from one of his other machines) on the bicycle rim and down to the blower pulley on the furnace.

The family took turns pedaling the bike, getting their exercise and warming the house.

This could be termed an early source of alternative energy.

Since we had “Ice Storm” in the Spokane area a few years back, our company has been called to set up stand-by alternative energy for many homes.  And we’ve gotten very proficient at it.

We’ve come a long ways from the days of “Bike-and-belt.”