u/BearsAteMyGarbage

This isn't like a jab or attack or anything, I'm mostly just curious. I've been working with a few different trades now for a few months on our bridge teardown/reconstruction project and it's made me a bit confused. We've had carpenters build the railings/staircases on the work bridge, assemble the concrete forms, pile drivers drive the pile, and underwater divers work to cut the concrete underwater on the old piers. All of this work is claimed by the carpenters. The only other trades that I've seen in months are us (two crane operators plus our oiler), laborers picking up trash and filling grout, and rodbusters laying rebar a few times.

The pile driving I can kind of understand because theoretically they might drive a wooden pile, but these guys are welding and working with big sheets and pipes of metal all day every day for months on end. Why is that not an ironworker's job?

And even more curious is the underwater concrete cutter divers. Carpenters? Are you sure?

The carpenters also assemble and disassemble the concrete forms and basically take over the entire process of putting a pier up besides the rodbuster rebar and then laborers which handle the pour itself. Then the carpenters take over again. Just seems like a lot of work for one union is all.

Hey guys, I think need a bit of a sanity check here because I've wanted to quit my job for the entirety of this year and go to another local or at least district that pays better. We have the worst pay out of 8 districts in my local, and my company has awful equipment and management that genuinely hates operators. I can think of a lot of things but just as an example, my super has tried claiming laborers as my oiler before to stop my apprentice from showing up to work Saturdays. We had to call the hall about it, among other things.

I'm almost 2 years into my stay here at 302 (4 years trucking, 2 years boom truck/RT work non-union). I've called around to basically every Western 11 local and it seems work is slow or slowing down, besides maybe a refinery job out in CA that might come soon. However, I received a connection through work that put me through to a large national rental company out of CA. The regional manager offered me a job after just a 10 minute conversation over the phone. He said he needs crane hands really badly and will give me the union rate down there plus a few other benefits I wouldn't get here. The local down there recommended registering as a traveler until I figured out if I liked the job or not and then transfer (I have other reasons for wanting to be there besides money).

What I don't really get is why this guy needs hands so badly he'd offer me a job sight unseen, but when I call the hall they basically say "yeah, we only have a couple openings and they're for luffing jibs in the middle of nowhere". Why doesn't he do a call out to the hall? What's stopping him if the pay he's offering is so good? Am I missing something? Either there's no work for crane guys, or there's not enough crane operators, but both can't really be true at the same time, can they? What gives.

So I live alone in an 850sqft 2bd/1ba house. Not too big, but full of furniture and all my belongings. My company asked me to transfer to a position out of town to a construction project far enough away to justify using my camper to live on the jobsite, but not so far that I can't come home. I'll get a small raise and more career responsibility with this transfer so I accepted it rather hesitantly.

The house is in alright shape but the yard is really where the problem lies. It's in a neighborhood with some low income apartments and I've had a few sketchy interactions with neighbors in the past year. The house has no fence, and looks very easy to break into. I don't particularly like my house; I bought it as a starter home when prices were going down and it had some issues that I couldn't foresee very well like the neighbor issue. I would prefer to sell it and live somewhere else, but the market isn't doing too well. I thought about renting it out, but I'm afraid of not having a permanent address that way. I would love to do something to either lower my bills or increase my income.

My city doesn't allow you to occupy anything with wheels on it on the property. I think the direction I want to take my life is to eventually buy more rural where I can place a utility pad down and keep my vehicles there outside city limits. It's just an idea though, and is common in my line of work where people travel for work a lot. I don't really have much family, just my dog and I. Managing this house by myself from a distance I'm afraid will be kind of stressful. I'd like some suggestions.

Thank you

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One thing I forgot to mention was that I'll be going from 35hr weeks to 50-60hrs. I've been asking for more hours for a while but the project I've been on didn't allow for it. The new one will have us working OT and possible Saturdays (8-10hrs all OT pay) which I'm okay with. It will be a more significant raise on the check than I made it out to be even without the $4/hr, possibly as much as $1k/wk+.