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The job got shut down today......

4K views 20 replies 16 participants last post by  painterdude 
#1 ·
So we are on day one of a comercial job today working in the offices of a gasoline distribution facility. Its a small remodel, and there's a number of trades there. We're removing paneling, scrape off the black adhesive, some drywall installation and painting of the walls and jambs etc.

All the employees that work in the tank farm behind the offices are union, but not the office staff. Corporate is aware of this, and that all the trades will be open shop that work on the remodel .

So....... One of the bosses walk's in looking pissed off (he didn't like we are non union) and tells us all that we need to be wearing our safety glasses and hard hats. Safety glasses no problem. Didn't even think to have the guys bring there hard hats on a light job like this. Actually its been a year or two since we even needed hard hats and I'm sure the guys have lost them by now!

So we at least got 5 hours in, and the guys will be sporting brand new headgear tomorrow. :yes:
 
#2 ·
I hate jobs like that. Painters don't wear no hard hats :no:

The one and only time I had to do something similar was on a large cottage construction site in the middle of nowhere - had a team of guys all donning white coveralls and full face respirators (spraying stain on ceilings) and hard hats. You shoulda seen all the construction guys when we rolled up - they were all giving us funny looks and getting all nervous because we looked like a full out hazmat team lol ... and they're thinkin "what the f is going on here???" :thumbup:
 
#12 ·
I would say 75 percent of our jobs you have to wear hard hats. I dont mind wearing a hard hat. I hate wearing safety glasses though. I usually let them hang around my neck on with a neck holder. It is becoming more common on bigger commercial jobs where they want a hard hat, safety glasses, and a vest. I think the trades should wear hard hats if there is work going on over head or the ceilings aren't in. When the job is winding down its not worth wearing one.
 
#6 ·
I got a call a year or so ago from one of my customers who asked if I would go to a job site and repair two machines on site. the painters were standing around as that was the only 2 machines they had on the job and they were 80 miles from their shop. The customer said that the GC foreman was more than pissed and they were holding up others. I was only about 20 miles away so I got in my pickup and went right over. I checked in at the trailer and was asked where my hard hat was and when I told them I did not have one the guy flipped and said I could not go on site without. I asked him if he would notify the painters that I was there and could they bring the machines to me and he said he did not know where they were. when I asked how much of a rush they were really in and :censored:he threw me off of the site. I called my customer and he called his guys and they met me in a parking lot up the street and I got them up and running. 2 weeks later had the same thing with another contractor and same GC but a different site foreman and he said he did not care if I was naked as long as I got the painters running again. go figure
 
#7 ·
Back when I was a union decorative painter, there were many jobs we had to wear hard hats. Especially if there was 60 feet of staging on theatre walls that you were climbing around on. Usually we were up on the top doing ceiling work so no one could see us and the hats came off.
Sounds like they are screwing with you. Worst union towns i've worked in (real idiots) Erie, PA and Philly.
 
#9 ·
We had to wear hard hats painting the exterior brick mold around the overhead garage door and front door for one of the national builders. How silly is that? The house is a day or 2 away from closing, no outside construction going on whatsoever and here we are with head gear painting brickmold.

Maybe in the event that some metal flashing should fly off a house from across the street... who knows.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Hard hats, I believe in and wouldn't have a problem wearing one, if it was required. I've known people that have seriously gotten injured due to no hard hat. I've worked for some builders that have a hard hat policy any time you set foot on their job. It only benefit you if something would come crashing/falling down. A safe environment, and it helps keep your workers comp down if something were to happen. So I have no problem with it in that respect.

Union's however I do not believe in, they turn hard working people into a bunch of sissy's. I was walking a job in a social security building. The head lady was walking me through the building. Through out my meeting employees (union labors) kept complaining that their lunch room was to warm. The last one was a guy, I wanted to slap him beside the head. Even the tone in their voice's, it was like a right had been taken away or they were being taken advantage of. I should have suggested to paint the building white!
 
#11 ·
I have no problems with hard hats at all. I just think it would be nice to let the contractors that are working at your place of buisness that they are required before starting the job! And if you tell them to stop working because they don't have them, that it will delay your job. It was just frustrating for me to lose almost half a day because people can't communicate.......

Also, my post was not intended to union bash. Just my opinion of why the individual that told us to stop work. IMHO he was just harassing us/on a power trip because we are all open shop.
 

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#14 ·
Roaddog is right about the union in Erie, PA. When I was with the painters union up there it was total bs all the time. Bunch of retards on power trips. I smile everyday because I am no longer there. Armpit of America!!!
 
#18 ·
I used to to hate working for the one builder here. Residential NC, interior, and when they seen us who were the only people inside with those high 8' ceilings above our heads without a hard hat they would flip out. :rolleyes:

However they do have their place. Once we were up about 100' and the one guy dropped a rafter square and it somehow made its way quite a few stories down the scaffolding without interference, and smacked dead center on the bosses hard hat. Ohhhh man that could've done some damage and he was PISSED.
 
#19 ·
Top 10 OSHA Fines

#7 – Head Protection
Number of Inspections: 1461
Number of Citations: 1464
Total Amount Fined: $747,099
Average Fine: $511.00

Head protection is very important on any jobsite; you must wear a hard hat. All sorts of things fly around a jobsite, from heights, trucks, to just walking into something. If your people are not wearing their hard hats, you risk being cited and fined.
And that was from 2008, with OSHA reaching out more to residential, bound to be higher!
 
#21 ·
Did a factory paint, new construction back in '89 in upstate NY. Union and non union(kinda strange for those days)....didn't mind the hard hats, which I borrowed from a brick layer friend of mine, the first day on the job at 10:00 we had to stop working for a 15 minute coffee break. Here we are on a 20 foot sissor lift painting red steel and color coding pipes and we gotta stop. We got used to it after a few days. Then the pm break as well. Strange stuff.
 
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