I had maybe 50 jobs in 15 yrs in the construction industry, starting around 78 or 79, I was a maniac anyway and I was probably low on the scale especially on the drug end. Even our business agents were near infamous in some cases. If anyone got tired of it they would lay you off. Over that period I only worked in my own local a handful, maybe 10 or a dozen times over the first 10 yrs. I really liked booming better and at the end I kind of drag ass but there were a few experiences to see some in action.
The work in my own local was rather generic at the time and a guy could shine but not as well as being from out of town where a guy could hunt down a job where the manpower demands had something special. I was a good lo-hi welder and innershield come in to play, lo hi on speed man. Well I was always the skinny guy among the apes, ha I remember one time some **** hit the fan, about similar to what you see on the TV with that crane in NY, it didn'tnt have the final outcome,,, only by an inch though so nobodydy knows,,,, but we had to secure some stuff with heavy cable and clips, I did the install with a couple helpers on my point and one of the pet apes,,, a really great guy,, comes over and says,,, Vern said I got to check make sure the clamps are tight, he says, orders I got to check. After I tell him,,, don't forget to mention to that ornery old fuk they were tight.
The old fart was packin, a double barrel derringer, he was having a survey in general one day, comes over to screw with me, we had extensive critical rigging up and he spots this stinger hanging on a cable, not a good plan was right but it wasn't mine, didn'tidnt set it there, would have moved it if I had seen it. So he walks up, I am on a pic about waist hi off the side of the building, says, if you hit that cable I am going to blow your balls off, one barrel for each. Ha, it was funny, I got off, walked over to my lunch box there, opened it, had a 9mm in it, ha,,, he says,, you not spose to have that,,, I said "like you are" ? I guess he could see I had a point. There might have even been a vodka bottle in theredon't recall but this was a case where everything was going like it was planned. I kind of did piss him off, wanted to go home for the holidays and really wanted him to lay me off and the way the deal was they really wanted to keep this crew intact in a bad way and I drag up. I worked for him again one other time a year or 2 later on a bridge.
I had a bunch of pictures from these deals, had them in a drawer which went thru a fire, I have been looking for the negatives. On occasion guys would have cameras. Anyway, I remember the fart, I liked him, he was an oreo, all hard on the outside, I saw him threaten this laborer who worked for the general, the guy was a monster, Vern had to look up to him by a foot, just spittin up, I'll throw your balck ass and the N word, would have been right in the guys face but he wasnt tall enough. The guy comes to talk to me later a minute about that ornery old man, I suggested he pick him up and shove him in one of those crappers head first but he says, I was kind of scared to.
A couple of those outfits were real adventures. Very tiring, demanding, overtime, high, cold, windy sometimes all 3 with other maniacs from out of town usually as locals could usually score something easier or steady. I had considered transfering my membership to one local in south Fla, things got balled up with both of them at the time, one robbing and something to do with gunfight in parking lot in the other, ha Only real reason I didnt is they stopped building real high rise there for a while, the underpinning got so expensive, land a mile away was cheap. They were starting the people mover project, I got side lined, with some broad, had a pocket full, didnt go back, its about the only place I got regret over.
To the orignal point,,, sanity and sobriety was less of an issue then and if they were making money where you were hard to replace they overlooked a lot of stuff way back when,,, past the statute of limitations. ha.
The trades were havens for people with all kinds off issues, heck only about half of them or less would have been employable anywhere else. That doesnt even scratch the surface of stuff I see company people, bosses, owners do.
One time I end up on the tail end of a big job, got the marching orders to go "round up any loose equipment" we might find, it was a zoo, about 30 outfits going from 60 to zero in about a week. You would be cutting away and wonder wtf, if you didn't have short hose bottles be gone in an instant, small rigging same thing as welding lead. You could cash a big paycheck at the nearest bar from the place. No ID and the only fee was the few cents change. They never ran out of money, the place would be jammed on those nights for hrs, working 7 10's or more, not many went home for weekends.
Oh Crap Joe...sorry to hear about this. Hang in there buddy, I know it doesn't seem fair. Almost sounds like they wanted to thin the herd for some reason. Anyone with any compassion should have allowed a retest, even supervised, if they were worried about tampering...that way once you were able to give the sample you could hand it off to the proctor without having to get off the seat until you were finished. Our sample cups have a thermometer strip glued to the side of the cup, that way they can look quickly before the sample has had time to cool off. Keep your head up.
