[Oden]

Meeh
If I got a opportunity to get a card. You get it.
Then you can work wherever you want. Union or non union.
Hiring hall? Different locals got different rules but pretty much I think hiring Halls are over. Mostly you can solicit ur own work.
I've worked all union since I got in. Been fortunate and we make our own luck. Goin close to 20 years.
Never had any regrets, myself. Well, not about getting a card anyhow. I make a living wage. I have health insurance, a pension and a annuity.
Get the card. Go to work. If you don't like it or it don't like you go back to what u were doing. It'll be there.

 

[Oden]

ive been struggling with this question for the last year... should i join the local here and become a union guy or stay freelance and keep all mu money. i am self employed but i know there is some security in unionising and i wonder what you guys think?:blink:

Not a request for political or ideological opinions
A request for informed advice on how best to maximize earnings for time spent pushing a painting tool
Just sayin

 

[Oden]

Robladd,
I got no problem with a guy on the job making the same dime I make and producing less than me. He can't underbid me! And I out produce him! Great! It is perfect even. As you know when the work slows I'll get the nod over him. The contractor makes more money off of me than he Duz off of him. You know how it works. Over the course of a year, or now going on 20 I've made out very well in this system we have.

I'd rather be in a competition to out produce the next guy than be in a competition to work for less than he will any day.

 

[Oden]

I'm having a recurring nightmare. Thanks NWP for keeping it real. Sent from my iPhone using PaintTalk.com

Robbladd.
Yes. I solicate my work. The contractors hire who they want. Layoff who they want. Very Kool
I don't know any trade unions to have seniority. In house jobs. Maybe. Sure not new construction.
All locals should have open solicitation but I know some don't.
For a employee, IMHO, whatever flaws each local may have I will bet it to still be the best game in town, I mean, c'mon. Keep it real. Real.

A lot of guys with the negative attitudes towards unions and I beleive the northwest painter to be one among others on the thread, really have no experience or maybe one negative experience with them in the first place. And really have no idea of what they are so animatedly opinionated about.

 

[Oden]

Robladd,
Life is a constant struggle no matter what path you take IMO. The non union guys- they are subject to layoffs and whatnot same as we are. The owner/operator guys, when the economy takes a dump,where are they at? Same place...
I don't know. Put it this way. I got in I was painting. Here and there. Last job was a buck twenty a day. Cash. And that was good money then. But I had no nothing. No health. No unemployment insurance. Much less a retirement plan of any kind. Dead end!

I raised two kids on this thing. Well almost there. I ain't rich off of it. But I live I'd call middle class. I'd call it. Unbelievable cause it is so slow coming but 10 more good years( and I ain't counting no chickens just I can see it) I could get that full pension. 20'k more hours and anything could happen...but hell if I went out now I got something. I was well on my way to nothing.

If I have regrets. I shulda been a doctor or a pharmacist ( lately I've been rethinking my life as a medical professional. It changes. For a while I was a fireman or a police officer or a postman and retired....) beings I am a painter however spending my hours working a union contract I have no regrets about. Best game in town.

 

[Oden]

Oden do you if your local is a Strong Union? I went through Boom of the mid 90's in Las Vegas there was a Tradesman Shortage and the Journeyman Test was 8 Questions. So if you could hold a paint brush you were a journeyman. Back in those days the "Painters" dragged a lot of folks through the mud with them. The "Local" was a big steel ball, and the painters were the chain. From your posts over the years I know you're a seasoned mechanic. What are you going to do when your putting out twice as much as the next guy and he's getting the same pay? Sent from my iPhone using PaintTalk.com

I think Robladd pretty much summed up what the test is all about
Either they need men. Or they don't.
If they need you. They'll give you or change for u ur answers. If they don't they won't give u the test.
IMHO

 

[Oden]

We are a non-union company. Our experience with the local union has been negative. The local here Salted us. Not fricken cool. This is fair business practices? We've also done work up in Philly. Philly is a union town from top to bottom. We were asked to bid on a mens' club in downtown Philadelphia almost within site of City Hall. We asked a local union contractor to bid the work for us and we would then use him as a sub. The job entailed preparing and painting about 30 pairs of shutters. Our local guy refused to bid on the work because it entailed 'carpentry'!?! The carpentry for him was the removal and re-installation of the shutters. As a member of the painter's union he was forbidden from doing any carpentry. In fact, he was also forbidden from doing any sheet rock replacement, hanging lights and any of the many things that we did as a matter of course in our normal work day. I asked him what sort of trouble could we expect from the union if we tried to do this job ourselves. He said that we would likely be visited by OSHA everyday. I don't know how anything gets built in Philly when your need 8 or so different unions to perform the work.

Only cause it is comical and to me obviouse

What I see
Me? Sub from U? Not.
It is so obvious.

 

[Oden]

We've subbed numerous commercial jobs to this local union contractor. Our relationship has always been amicable and profitable for both. Funny that, in this instance, a business in Philadelphia would seek a painting bid from a contractor from Virginia. I can only assume that their experiences with local union contractors has been less than satisfactory.

Penthouse? Was it?

 

[Oden]

No shortage of buildings being built. And they are all painted....
Just sayin
Lol