Gee',
As much as you like fences and Tame Critters,tell the boys how you looked to hire only Union help.
Laffin'!
B,
Perhaps you are aware that Texas is a right to work state. That�s the way it has been since I was born. A bunch of the guys I graduated high school with went into the Houston Police Department and the Houston Fire Department. They have unions. When I worked in the chemical plants on the Houston Ship channel as a laborer, pipefitters� helper, welder�s helper and later as a scaffold-builder, it was for non-union contractors. I worked shut-downs. My shop was an open shop. First two years I worked 7 days a week, usually from 6AM till 8PM. I paid myself $750 per month salary, which was the same salary my two brothers that worked with me drew. I did not pay union scale. When we first got started I had one guy I paid cash. I�d start guys at $5.00 per hour. However what I did do was make sure they got paid every Friday whether I did or not. Later on when things got better I paid more. Depending on what the job was and the skill level required determined the pay. However I paid time and � overtime after 40 hours to my employees. They also had perks for an extra good job or as a morale booster. We established a �house account� at a couple of nice restaurants in the area. Pasadena was �dry� at that time. If you were a �club� member you could get �liquor by the drink�. Otherwise is was beer and set-ups and you had to byob. I would let guys take the company truck home, let them take their wives and families to dinner, or fill up their tank with gas on the company. Stuff like that goes a long way to show folks that you appreciate their efforts and its non-taxible. If we made good money on a job and there were no screw-ups and deliveries were met we gave bonuses. I was loyal to my people and they were loyal to me. I�d tell them that they would not get rich working for me, but there would always be a place to sleep and beans on the table. I told all my guys that I wanted the best for them and their families and if they could find a better job, I expected for them to take it. I told them to have the prospective employer call me and I�d put in a good word for them.
As an aside, one of my earlier jobs was working for Cary-Way Portable buildings in the mid-sixties. A friend of mine�s dad invented the �sandwich� panel and built portable buildings for construction jobsites and offshore platforms. I�d hired on as a laborer for $1.25 an hour. IIRC it was the summer I was 15. As is the case it was terrible hot that summer. I was in a portable building hanging/installing fiberglass insulation. I�d tack it with a stapler. As I�m 5-8� I�d stand on the stool to tack the top and then squat on the stool to do the low part. I�ve always been one go 110 percent. I was doing the man the best job I could. Well It was close to noon and the job superintendent came through the unit. He saw me step up on the stool and tack the top then squat on the stool to get down low. He walks over and kicks the stool out from under me and starts cussing me saying that nobody that worked for him sat down on the job. I quit on the spot. I swore to myself if I ever was in the position to hire folks, that I was going to allow them to work to their own ability and if they had a better way of doing something, I�d listen.
Early on I learned determine what a person�s aptitude and capabilities were. It has been my experience that if you treat folks with respect, explain what you expect from them, provide them the tools to do a job and the opportunity to rise or fall on their own merit, folks will many time exceed your expectations. If you give credit where credit is due and reward and acknowledge a job well done, folk appreciate that. Over the last 30 years I�ve had numerous former employees that have gone on to successful careers come back and tell me that working �with� me was the best job they ever had. That in itself is a great reward at my stage of the game.
Now as to Union hands. I�m not going to get into politics, but here are a couple stories.
During the late 70�s and early to mid-80�s the South Texas Nuclear Project was ongoing in Bay City Texas, about 75 miles from Pasadena, Texas where I lived and had my shop. I was a member of the First Baptist church there. A number of the men in my young married Sunday -school class were Union hands. Electricians, millwrights, boilermakers and pipe fitters. We had a pretty tight group of couples. All our wives got pregnant about the same time. We�d get together after church on Sunday morning and evening and the wives would play �Bunco� during the week. Some of the guys and I were into long distance bicycling about this time. Anyhow, when they would get laid off, I made sure that they had a place at my shop to make some extra cash to tide them over till their next job. Because they were craftsmen, and not jake-legs off the street and my friends, I paid them a couple dollars more per hour than normal. Prolly not union scale, but they could not work their craft. However they were top hands and I was darn glad to have them assist me. I believe in training, apprenticeship, education and being a craftsman. I was out of the business since 1987. I've had no employees but me since that date.
One more,
My fourth brother Ken had the basic �mesomorph� body. He could look at weights and get a �pump�. By time he was 21 he had the body of a young Arnold S. and the smile, good looks, white teeth and mustache of a young Tom Selleck. He met a young lady that looked as good as Ann Margret on her best day. She was a �Stew� for Continental airlines back during the day, and she was hot. The body of Barbie and the red hair and face the here-to-fore mentioned Ann Margaret. About this time we were making money pretty good. I used to get the biggest kick out of watching �Bo� and �Sandy� cruising around in his convertible Mercedes 450 SLC �company car�. They looked like Ken and Barbie come to life. Now mind you Sandy was the prize daughter of a rough and tumble family of Irish Catholics. To boot they were all union hands and Yellow Dog Democrats (a term in the south that expresses the fact that they would vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for a republican) Pappa (Sandy�s dad) told the story of when he met his wife His middle initial was �O�, so although his name was not �O�Halian, but Dan O. Halihan the folks were happy because their daughter was marrying a good Irish boy.
My brother Ken whom they call �Bo� ( he got that nickname the summer he was 16. He was working outside in the heat. By noon he�d be stripped down to the waist and would loop a piece of rope though his belt loops to keep is pants up. The Beverly Hillbillies was big about that time. The guys on the job got to calling him �Jethro Bodine�, which later became shortened to �Bo�). Funny, my side of the family calls him Ken. Sandy�s whole family calls him �Bo�.
Well Bo and Sandy end up getting married. As I mentioned before, Bo�s wife�s family is an Irish, Catholic, Democrat, Union family with in-laws, out-laws and all kinds of relations. Pappa as I�ll call him here had his first son at 15. Pappa�s first son had his first son at 16. So Pappa is a grandpa relatively young. Now Bo comes from a family who�s father is a rounder, but the family matriarch is a by the book hard shell southern Baptist and Bo, being the son he is , turns out to be not only religious, but conservative also. This really rankles the first son of Papa, who I�ll call Rich.
Pappa, the first son Rich, and his son (who is now in his twenties), several cousins and friends, all who are union hands and democrats are on a hill country hunting lease together. Pappa tells Rich that they are gonna have to put Bo on the lease, cause Pappa �ain�t gonna have no grandson of mine grow up not hunting�. Rich tries every way he can to persuade Pappa no. He tells papa, that Bo� don�t do manual labor, all he is interested in is making money and we�ll have to put him up a stand, skin his deer, and not only is he a Baptist, but he�s also a republican. However Pappa is adamant.
So this is 1999. I did not know Rich from Adam at this point. One day I get a call and the fellow on the other end of the line says, Geedub, this is Rich, Bo�s brother-in law. I return the greeting and after a little I ask what�s going on. He proceeds to tell me the story of how he�s gotta get Bo on the lease. I agree with him that yes, my brother does not hunt, loves to make money, Has no gun, couldn�t skin a deer if his life depended on it and would not carry his own water. So Rich has a proposition for me. However, he prefaces it with this caveat. Geedub, we know that you�re a conservative and religious, and we want you to know right up front that we don�t like you, but we also know that you hunt, skin deer, and don�t mind work. So if you�ll look out and take responsibility for your lazy azz brother we�d like to invite you on our deer lease. I told them I could hold up my end. Bo hunted with them one year. This will be my fourteenth year hunting with this group of die hard union hands that live like one percenters but vote democrat. I love them like brothers. In fact we have made a pact between us in regards to our funerals.
It goes like this:
For the first ten years anywhere up to 11 of us slept a one room line shack or a trailer. We�d go to sleep at night, and I mean every night for that 10 years to the the musical score of John Wayne�s �The Alamo�. Almost never got past �must be parson and the boy�, �Think so�. LoL. We have a deer camp ritual. When the �Mexican Whistles� you take your shot of tequila. Don�t matter what time of day or night, whether you�re passed out sleep or drunk, you get up and take your shot. The camp motto is �it ain�t easy being macho� So we have all pledged at each of our funerals, whoever remains will play the theme song to �Villa Rides�, AKA the �Whistling Mexican, take a tequila shot and throw the shot glasses in the hole as a toast.
So B, This will be my fourteenth season hunting with my union brothers. In fact, usually on opening weekend, when Rich and I are the only ones left standing, I remind him of our original conversation. We�ll give each other a hug,(and I�m not big on hugging men) and Rich will say. Geedub, you�re one of the most liberal minded conservatives I know.
Best,
GWB
