GangboX Podcast
Everything Union Everything Las Vegas We dive into the topics that affect Union construction workers in the valley.
GangboX Podcast
GangboX Episode 12 Workplace Stories
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This episode includes talking about job related injuries and steps needed to make sure that you don't screw yourself over and not be able to work because of an injury. All things Union all things Construction!
Kingbox Podcast.
SPEAKER_00We're back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Episode 12. 12. 12. Episode 12. Luis, huh? What a guess. What a good guy, dude. Great human. He should be a glazer. I love I love that he says applauded for violence in the field. You know, because that that could be many things, but the more physical and aggressive you are with that fucking rebar brother, the more they love you. I saw a Mike Rowe thing all about rebar. It was non-union company in in uh Florida. Yeah. Yeah. I was watching, I was like, that shit doesn't look that hard. No, not when non-union does it. It looks like they put 15 guys on like a 20-footer. I'm like, bro, you got three guys on a 20-footer? We pick those up by ourselves, bro. Number four is number five. Rebar 20 foot. That's like you grab a handful and go, bro. We need to get Mike Rowe on the podcast. Micro. I'll make a call. I'll make a call. See what we could do. We should clip this. We'll put it on social media. Micro. I just want his voice. I want him to be the voicemail on my phone. Hello, you reach Vince's phone. That would be cool. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_00Well, how was your uh how was your break? The break was good. New Year's holiday time took a little time off.
SPEAKER_01It was good, bro. It was solid. We uh it was good. Got spend time with the kids, do the thing, you know what I mean? I mean, we celebrate Christmas in our house. Uh that is our holiday tradition. And then uh New Year's was good, dude. Everything was good. What about you? Same. Yeah? Took a little time off, got to spend some time with the family. It's always good. That is good, bro. Yeah, you actually took time off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I took some time off to be with them. Yeah. Didn't do a lot of a lot of traveling lately, a lot of long hours, and so it was nice to get away. But I mean, I was still in the office, still answering the phone, still got the laughter. You have to do that. Yeah, you can't really fully disconnect.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that that's what people think. Like in these sort of jobs, if you really just did because they're like, you have to disconnect, you're gonna have burnout, like yes, you you you are. That is true. You have to be able to like turn that shit off. But if you don't answer your fucking emails, dude, you come back to a pile of shit and it's like ugh, can't do it. Yeah, but it's all good, man. No, that's good. But um, yeah, dude, we gotta have we're trying to think who the next guest should be. I know we're talking. I I I think like maybe uh uh we should try to get um what do they call the injury attorney or something?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I know you've uh you've talked about that. Uh we have a lot of workers' comp issues with with members, you know, getting hurt on the job. Uh it'd be nice, I think, some informative stuff with uh I think there's been a ton, there's a ton of good workers' comp attorneys in town that really focus on construction stuff. Um and you know, it's a lot of time times our our agreements, you know, we don't cover workers' comp, right? And so members, as they should call their business agent, hey, what am I supposed to do? And a lot of times it's like, look, if you are even hurt or think you got hurt or might get hurt on a job site, you should you should always report it. Because what happens is you go lift something up, your back. Oh, you feel something in your back, and you're like, oh, no, that's good. Like it kind of hurts a little bit, but I'm fine. You might want to report that. And it sucks because we don't want to report anything, we want to just keep going. But if you fast forward three weeks and it's really jacked up, it's gonna be hard to prove that you did it at work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That can affect, you know. I have a few members, dude. Their quality of life has been affected because of work, and they've they never reported it. And so now, you know, you've just for the man, you've just sacrificed your health and well-being for the rest of your life, and you ain't getting shit for it.
SPEAKER_01So that I'm glad you brought that up. And this is all unscripted episode, right? Like we're just gonna let the fucking We're winging it this episode. Fucking diarrhea is gonna flow whatever direction it goes into. So, but it's funny you bring that up because I remember when I was organizing, dude, um, and we'd go on jobs and you'd see union members working non-union, and they'd be like, Well, I gotta do what I gotta do to feed my family. Like, yeah, but why do you have to do the same fucking craft? Right. Like, you don't it like I I get it, do what you gotta do, but Amazon pays you the same amount, and guess what? They give you insurance day one. Go work in a fucking warehouse, go past their pistols, do your thing. Because what I would tell them is not only did you you're you're breaking down conditions, you're you're making it hard for us to go collectively bargain for you and get you a fucking raise. Because the same guy who's out working non-union is the same guy who's fucking bitching and complaining that the negotiating committee didn't do a good job getting them a percentage and raise. How can we justify giving you more money when you're going to work for less money? Okay. One. Two, if you get fucking hurt on a non-union job, your union insurance doesn't fucking pay for it, dude. Like you are fucked. You're you're toast. And and so like all of that is a big deal, right? Yeah. And the third thing, dude, is like you are fucking the apprenticeship school because you are taking what we taught you and applying it to the non-union. Right. And so there's a whole mess of reasons why you shouldn't even be fucking doing what you're doing. Right. Right? Like, yes, feed your family. Nobody's saying don't feed your fucking family, but just don't do the same fucking thing that you're doing, that you're don't do the work that's covered under our collective bargaining agreement.
SPEAKER_00And what I tell members all the time is you you go work non-union, and it's like, well, I have to because we don't have any work. Well, we would have the work if we won the bid, and we could have won the bid against this non-union contractor, but this non-union contractor is getting hundred dollar an hour guys for 40 bucks an hour. 40 bucks an hour. So of course they're gonna win the bid, and so you're undercutting everything that the union is fighting for. And I tell members, you can do anything you want in the world except for the work that's covered under our collective arguing agreement, right? Just that that jurisdiction of work, just don't do that. You can do anything else. And I have a ton of members, you know, they they'll drive trucks or they'll do security, they do Uber Eats. I mean, there's a there's a ton of stuff that you can do. There is, dude. And I know that that probably doesn't mean a lot coming from my seat, because what I'll get from members sometimes too is well, that's easy for you to say you're collecting a check. And I get that. I I understand that argument, but I know what it's like to starve. I know what it's like to be out of work for over a year not having work. I mean, 2009, 10, and 11 in this town were really fucking bad. And it was really bad for me. And I was out of work for for over a year, and I remember what it was like to struggle and try to do odd jobs and try to make money anywhere I can, but I didn't go work for a non-union contractor that was performing work covered under my collective bargaining agreement.
SPEAKER_01You just can't do it, you know? Dude, a hundred percent. So that's when people are like, well, yeah, it's easy for you to say, like if you're going on strike or some shit like that, or or even in tough times, and it's like, dude, no, you don't. I would leave. I would go travel for work, I'd go chase work. Okay, we're dead here. And then people worry about like fucking Sancho moving in or something. It's like, okay, well, I can't control that. I I have to pay bills, whether Sancho's there or not. Please, Sancho, don't come over. But it's like, dude, like you still have to fucking like provide. Yeah. You could still maintain, and so like with my local, we're Los Angeles, Las Vegas. So you can go travel to Los Angeles, make the same fucking money, do the same thing. Yes, it costs money to stay in a hotel. As long as you're making more than the what's unemployment, 400 fucking bucks a week. As long as you're making the 400 more, what does it matter? Because you keep your insurance up because people are like, it doesn't even fucking make sense to be away from my kids. Well, your insurance stays good, you're putting hours towards your retirement, your pension, your health and welfare, your fucking annuity, all of that shit. You get your vacation check. So, like, yeah, you might not be bringing home the same dollar amount that you're used to traveling for work, but goddamn, bro, at least you're still maintaining the back end of the stuff. Right. And every day you don't work is another day you have to work for retirement.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So every day that you're working, yes, as long as you're making more than what unemployment is providing, bro, in in the long run, it's gonna make sense, right? Or do I got that? No, no, you're you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00And you know, that that brings us to like a bigger problem, right? So why, you know, it's always been said in this town in in Vegas, feast or famine. Feast or famine. I mean, that's anyone who's ever worked here knows that term. Boomer bust. Boomer bust, feast or famine. They've been telling me that since I was an apprentice. Uh, we are either booming and everyone's working and getting overtime, or there is nothing. Yeah. And there are in my local particularly, there are it's a select few of people that get to kind of ride that wave out and be smooth. And so, you know, ultimately, we need more hours, right? We need more hours in those downtimes. And so, how do we generate more hours? And it's like, we well, we need to beat the non-union. Well, sure, we can beat the non-union um in in certain markets because they don't really play in those markets, but how do we beat the non-union in their market? That's that's the problem. We must generate more hours. And and as a as a union, and even as a building trade, you know, one of the the ways that we do that is is through, and we've talked about this a lot: project labor agreements, community benefit agreements, community workforce agreements. Um, that is how we need to, because we need to organize markets. Yeah. Organizing contractors is cool. I would love to, you know, there's some new non-union glazing contractors in this town that I would love to sign. And given the opportunity, we'd sign them. But they have a bunch of workers working for them already. And so if I sign them, they would all become members and great our union grew. But that doesn't help my guys that are on the other work list. No, like all they don't all of a sudden have an employer to go to, right? And if there's a new guy, and and we've done this the last couple of years, you know, a new contractor, a guy that's been an estimator for a big glazing contractor. He wants to start his own business, he gets this money guy, he gets everything, and he he's in. We sign him. Great, we have a new contractor, and now that contractor is bidding against my other contractors for all the strip work. My members are gonna work on that work, whether it's for this new contractor I just signed or the ones that I already had, because we're already in that market. So, did I gain any hours by signing that guy? No, no, how do you gain hours? You gain hours by organizing markets you're not in, and bringing economic development to the city, right?
SPEAKER_01Creating jobs, creating fucking jobs, and and and uh no, dude, that's all super important. I I love coming up with creative and innovative ideas to recapture market share, and not from other fucking crafts, like there's that, and that's you know, and fuck you already know me, bro. I fucking got a big ass mouth and I'm always getting shit on this fucking podcast. But yeah, even this part, what I'm about to say, like what really fucking goes up my ass all the time with the union on union crime. Oh yeah, like fighting over jurisdiction and people stealing shit. And it's like, guys, listen, you guys are fighting each other over work. I'm the building trades guy. I'm I don't get in you know this, and everybody knows this. I don't get involved in anyone's jurisdictional bullshit. Right. Even if it's the fucking carpenter's like, carpenters do much, I don't give a fuck. That's for you. That's your local, bro. Um, and it's not to say that I don't care about your local or I don't care about your work, that's just jurisdiction is not my thing because you could say it's yours, and then I go help you, and then another local is like, hey bro, why the fuck did you help them get that's actually ours? We do that, it's covered under our collective bargaining agreements. And I'm like, fuck. So I don't get involved in anything jurisdictional, yeah. Right? And for the members who don't know what the jurisdictional work is, because sometimes we get we forget, right? And this podcast is for our members. This podcast is to outreach to our members and educate our members and and explain to them. So jurisdiction is for the rebar, it was easy for me because jurisdiction was rebar. Anything that reinforces fucking concrete. Sure. Post-tentioning cables and rebar. Oh, we know the glazers know what that is.
SPEAKER_00We drill through those sometimes when we're gonna be able to do it. Post-tention cables, I love it. Yeah, a little rebar eater. You go through it and then the floor jumps in the air. Dude, that shit is fucking dangerous.
SPEAKER_01That's happened to me. Uh bro. I've drilled through one of those. Uh yeah, it's scary because, dude, what people don't realize that could come up. So it's not, just doesn't just shoot out. If it's not reinforced properly, where they're called banded cables, and it's a group of fucking cables, bro. And if that's not reinforced properly with backup bars or people get lazy or complacent and they forget, you have they they stress those things. I can't remember the exact PSI. I think it's like 3,300 fucking PSI or something. We could probably Google it because I've been out of the field for a minute. But so you have 20 heads and a casting heads where the post-tensionings are, and so if it's not reinforced properly, bro, that whole deck. I've seen decks lift, like the concrete deck will lift, or sometimes it'll even explode. Fuck people up, dude. Cut cut a it could cut somebody in half, but anyway. So that's jurisdiction of work, right? Like that is your jurisdiction. So glazers is like raw glass, which again we joke, but it's like a jurisdictional fight between the ironworkers and glazers, like who sets what, the hat glass handrail. Not my fucking bag to worry about.
SPEAKER_00Well, and a lot of that too is also geographical, right? There's sections of the country where certain scope of work belongs to one craft, and then in another area of the country, it belongs to a different craft. And then contractors travel throughout the country and they're like, Well, no, we do it on the East Coast like this. And it's like, well, we don't do it like that on the West Coast, and so you're constantly having those battles, right? Um, I mean, rebar, there's not really a whole lot of no, that's why I loved my job, bro.
SPEAKER_01That's why it was easy because nobody wants to fucking do it. I mean, we just heard Luis talk about like you gotta be a little bit fucking crazy, bro, to be a Rodbuster. Like, you there has to be a one screw loose, like maybe it's all good, but uh so with the unions on unions that you know they fight over the jurisdiction. So I don't, but what I explain to people when they're like, that's our work, I always have a couple questions for new people. And this goes for every union, even my own, my guys who say, like, hey, this and that. How many man hours in the last five years do you have doing that type of work? How many contractors do you have that bid that work? We have the manpower or the workforce, the skilled and trained workforce to do it, because if it's in your collective bargaining agreement, that there's a good chance that you train in it at your J ATC. So how many man hours or how many work hours do you have? And how many, how many contractors do you have to bid it, right? Over the last five years. If you have more than the other union, yeah, then you could say that's your work.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And they're like, Whoa, and this this is not just one union, bro. Multiple unions tell me this. Well, well, if they fucking steal it all the time, that's well, I hate to tell you this, but that ain't your work no more. That you lost that job. Now you can get it back, right? And and and they're like, How do we get it back? My in my my perspective is you don't go fight the other union for it, you go fight the non-union for it. Because I guarantee you that there's a non-union company doing the same exact work that probably has more market share than what this other union has. So go organize them and their workers, have them only do that sort that job, right? Whatever that is, whatever market that they're doing, whether it's light commercial or anything, have them all do that. You could you could even create, and it's not that's it shit gets weird. I don't want to get too deep into the woods about it, but you you organize the non-union company, you have them only do that work and continuously just go after that fucking work. Now, once you go after all that work, you find another non-union contractor. Let that union still do its thing. It's not if it's still in your work. Now, in five years, you've organized three companies, you have three companies that bid that work, you have X amount of work hours. Right. Guess what? You got the work back. And you didn't have to fucking bare knuckle box another union over it. Right. Well, and I think easier said than done. It's a lot of fucking work, bro. It's a lot of fucking work, it's not easy, right? And you gotta get super creative on on how to recapture the market share.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, and and I mean, as a business agent, right, your your members kind of elect you uh to represent them to protect their market share. And so it's difficult as agents when you feel like and and what I've learned over the years is that that the vast majority of the of the unions that are in these disputes all think it's theirs. You know, like like the the other agent I deal with with another craft for another scope, and I'm having the he thinks it's his. Yeah, he absolutely, and I think it's mine. Like we genuinely have a disagreement. It's very few unions that are actively trying to we call it raid, raid another craft's work, which is wrong. If you are actively trying to steal another craft's work, it's just wrong to do. But you don't, that's not really what's happening out there. What's happening is people over time have moved jurisdictions, jurisdictions have swung one way or the other, different parts of the country, contractors come in, things just kind of change, you know? And uh, you know, the agents believe it's theirs, but to your point, there's like a meme online of like it's two gazelles, and they're like fucking, they got their horns and they're like going at each other. And in the background is a lion that is just charging them. And that's kind of like how I feel unions are like we are so busy battling each other that the non-union is out there kicking the shit out of us, you know. And so I will protect my work. If there's a jurisdictional issue, we got to do it. But we're it's like we're siblings, and that's how it should be. Um, you know who told me this analogy was uh uh Rob Robert with the sheet metal. Uh great. He said, uh, you know, if if there's one cookie in the cookie jar and me and my brother are fighting over it, we're gonna fight over it. But if someone from outside thinks they're coming in and taking mine and my brother's cookie, we're gonna beat the fuck out of them. Well, right, and that's how we should be.
SPEAKER_01Like And sometimes when the two brothers are fighting over the one cookie, a little fucking rat will come in and grab the cookie and leave. Right.
SPEAKER_00No pun intended with the rat joke, but you get what I you get what I'm saying. And so, I mean, uh so hours is obviously the most important thing to us, right? Generating hours. And so to kind of go back to to where we started, like having members when it gets slow to go work non-union, perform our work uh for a fraction of the price is undercutting our ability to fight for more hours.
SPEAKER_01Here's something else it's wild, bro. When you talk about organizing and bottom up and you're trying to do this, right? Like I I remember uh there was a bunch of non-union dudes working, I mean a bunch of union guys working non-union, and they try to top organize them, right? Uh I mean sorry, bottom up. Bottom up, yeah. They try top the good guy, the contractor was like, no, thanks, whatever. So it's bottom up, and it's like you start counting, okay. There's 20 guys on the job, 12 of them used to be union members. Like, this should be a slam dunk. We'll run an election, we'll win 51%. Yeah, you know, you try to get what 70% or whatever. And uh bro, it was fucking hard. Yeah. I was like, you guys are fucking scared of a non-union comp like what the fuck make this crazy, bro. Crazy. And and it's hard. I don't know what that's like, right? Like, like because like I said, I would leave. So I don't know. I'm not talking shit about them being scared or fearful of losing work. Cause I don't, I don't, I don't have that in me. Like I don't it's it's fucking I feel sorry for those guys, bro. I'm just like, damn, bro, I don't I hope I never yeah feel the fear that you fear of uh of an employer. Yeah, I'm union for a fucking reason, so I don't gotta be scared. Right. And I have the faith in myself that if my union rep ain't gonna help me, I can still read the collective bargaining agreement. Yeah. And if that means this motherfucker doesn't like me because whatever, yeah, right, maybe I pissed them off one day or maybe I I called them out on the bills because they uh you guys post bills on the wall too, right? During union meetings and you get to look. I don't know if you do, but we do. We post our bills on the wall. What do you mean your bills? The the union bills, like how much did you spend on a car wash today?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, we read, we don't post them, but we read out every check that's written.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we we post everything on the wall. So any of one of our members on a monthly meeting goes in there and that's why you check your dues. And because they're like, well, what if somebody reads? But these are all dues paying members. That's why you have Sergeant at Arms check their fucking dues at the door, right? So they go and I would call people out. Hey, what the fuck is this $180 at Roberto's motherfucker? Like, what were you doing? Yeah, right? Like I would I was that guy, yeah. And you would typically only do it when you're trying to start shit, yeah, right? Like you want them to be mad at you for whatever fucking reason. So uh, but yeah, dude, I I so if he was mad, I wouldn't care. I would still rep myself. And people know, dude, like with my election, I've told you that story about the the man I was before I became union rep, I was a big old fucking company kiss ass.
SPEAKER_00Well, and and right, it's all about leverage, yeah, right? It depends on what's happening in the market. If if we have a ton of work and anyone can go work for anyone, members are, you know, we're always more confident in telling the owner to go fuck off, fuck you. If there is very little amount of work and only one or two guys have have work, well now you're you're kind of like uh you're gonna take it in shorts if you need to because you don't have nowhere else to go, right? And so that's that's always that's leverage, that's always that's just the the name of the the business, and it has to make sense, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it's like all right, motherfucker, like work is slow. I don't know, I can't agree with you. You've never done that as much as I want to be like, yeah, simple, like no, yeah, I like I was always fearful that that would become the new habit, like working in the rain. People make fun all the time. Yeah, I'm I might have been an asshole fucking general foreman and shit, but like I never made the guys work in the fucking rain. And and if I did, like, call me out, motherfuckers, because I promise I never made guys work in the rain. What do you mean you're not allowed to work in the rain? Or we do it's a safety hazard. Like it it like because you got to remember, like, we're outside. Yeah. And so here, like, so in Seattle that wouldn't fly, right? Oregon or somewhere like that. And but like, no, it was like an in we wouldn't really do this, but like, oh, draw a circle, and if there's five fucking drops, we go home. So I just spit in the circle, like uh, five drops. You know what I mean? Yeah, but no, uh, like it's not for one, you lose fucking money. You can't produce in fucking rain. We're not equipped for we don't have like we'll put a fucking trash bag on. No, I'm not gonna wear a ring. If I if I have to wear a raincoat, my production's gonna go down again. We have to put one ton of rebar in per person per day. You can't do that on a fucking slippery, oily fucking deck, yeah, that's all wet and rain coming down. You're gonna slip, you're carrying that fucking rebar. My crew fucking ran. Like our my guys were were movers and shakers, bro. Like they would blow and go, they would run. And you can't you can't produce, you can't put in that ton of rebar a day. And so, unless the general contractor's like, I will sign a ticket for lost time, like fuck you, we're going home because I can't produce. Like, the dogs can't eat right now because the fucking you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so we wouldn't work in the rain typically, and uh, but I knew that like once we did one time, it's gonna be expected to work in the rain every fucking time. Yeah, and then now I look like a piece of shit general foreman because my guys can't produce, and you can't expect the same amount of production in the rain that you could in the no no same like overtime. We would always work overtime, of course. But if the general contractor expected us to work overtime in the summertime, let us work it on the front end, not the back end, because I can't produce dude two or three o'clock? You know how fucking hot it gets here? You can't really produce in that sort of heat, right? So, hey, yes, it's double time to start earlier, pre-shift. I understand that it's time and a half, but the amount of production we can get starting at 2 a.m. is way better than 2 p.m. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, so that's that's uh those were some of my little fucking war stories. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00We weren't even yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know. I think you know, in a collective bargaining agreement is a collective bargaining agreement. Now, look, I got it's crazy because I'll have some members that it don't matter who's got the the leverage or how the work is, they are not gonna let a contractor fuck them out of a penny. It's not gonna happen. Regardless, they'll fucking pack up their tools and walk. Now, if every member was like that, then not a single contractor could ever take advantage of anyone, right? And I've always told my members like our strength is in our unity. It does not matter how strong our uh your I am as a leader if our membership is weak. And quite frankly, any schmuck could do my job as a business agent if the membership is strong. The strength has nothing to do with me, right? And and I am not the union, you were the union. And so if there's a worker on the job, if one of our members is getting mistreated by management or getting fucked over and they get fired or walked off, I mean, I I can't encourage a wildcat strike, but it would be pretty awesome if the fucking members all stuck together and said, You fuck one of us, you fuck all of us, fuck you, right? That's how unions, that's how unions were built, and that's how why why we've we've been able to maintain, right? Is because of that. And so um, you know, and then you have I have some members that would never call me, well still will never, don't ever call me about anything, any problems, any questions. They work for their contractor, I never hear them, I never see them, they don't come to meetings, they don't get involved, they talk shit about me every chance that they get. Uh, I'm sure that guy's getting fucked a lot, right? And he's just not saying anything, but the contractor keeps them working, you know. And so it it's just uh it's just an interesting, interesting dynamic. But our our strength lies in the strength of our of our membership and us as a whole, as a building trades, could could come together and have recently, yeah, right, and and really strengthen. I mean, how sweet would it be if someone on a job site was getting fucked in the whole fucking job? Other crafts all said, fuck this, we're not gonna take this, right? That's that's power. That's power, bro. That's power.
SPEAKER_01It's power, but then also, and uh again, I'll be the naysayer. When does that start to get abused? This fucking water ain't cold enough. We're out of here. Yeah, like come on, guys.
SPEAKER_00Fuck we see we got ice water in our agreement. I had a contractor tell me, well, how cold does it have to be?
SPEAKER_01And I'm like, motherfucker, it says ice water. Ours says clean, cool drinking water. That's the other thing with the weather, it says inclement weather. So it's like like and and I could appreciate that it's not spelled to a T because everything is circumstantial.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because what if it's just like a light sprinkle? We could f and and we're not doing any running or gunning, we're just stressing the deck. We're we're we're you we're post-tension the thing we were just talking about. Like we're stressing the fucking deck, it's all good. Or you know, we're setting columns or whatever that you don't require fucking climbing because we know how to rig them properly, so we could just disconnect from the don't you don't have to climb shit.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh so all of that fucking matters, right? And that's why I think inclement weather and it not saying rain or wind, dude. Wind is a motherfucker out here. I remember when we did the M, dude. Holy fuck. Them carpenters rigged up. We we had just finished up the walls, we buttoned up the walls, and uh Pete was talking asking me about like how how we what happens when it's windy. Like, yeah, if the crane tower crane shut down and the operator goes home, we all go home. Yeah, like because if somebody gets hurt on top of the deck, how the fuck do they how do we move remove them, right? It's a hazard. But I remember the carpenters, dude. We finished up the walls, we bolstered them up, did all did all of our thing, and they they try to set a couple panels. Their excuse was so the rebar doesn't blow over. Rebars are fucking still squares, dog. They're not gonna blow over. It blows through it, right? Right? Like it's a grid. Right. And so the contractor was trying, and I I'll never forget this, bro. He went up to the tower crane. The tower, the tower crane guy was like, No, shut it fucking down, bro. He's like, it's over 40 miles an hour or whatever. 30, I don't remember what it was. And he's like, he went up there with the fucking wind gauge, bro. And the con the operator's like, get the fuck off my crane. Like, so dude came down, he was one of those types of guys, right? And uh one of those general contractors. And so then he's like, fuck it. And the operator's like, all right, man, like there's gust, and like we'll try it. Dude, they hooked up to that fucking wall panel.
SPEAKER_00That bitch started fucking spinning, bro. It doesn't even have to be that windy, and all of a sudden it'll catch that fucking building just right, come around the corner, and and that went that window starts fucking spinning. It's fucking scary, bro. He's gotta catch it.
SPEAKER_01No, I mean maybe a window.
SPEAKER_00You gotta try to catch it, dude.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that's the thing, he's like, what do I like he went and uh this time he the guy like fucking trolley in and he hit a column? Bam! And there was one that wasn't set, so it would we had double double stacks. Like so every every other column you had to set. It's hard to explain. And so it was one that was already embedded in the concrete, so he just fucking came close to that one and fucking smacked it and it stopped. But I've seen I and again, I don't know if that's smart or dumb. I I I'll let the operator fucking decide. Maybe we gotta have an operator on here and tell us. But the other guy just fucking trolleyed it all the way out and took it to a dead lay down yard, and it's fucking spinning, and he's like telling everybody, just get the fuck away. I caught it. Yeah, and he just lowered the fucking cable down, cable down by himself, and it was spinning all out of control, and it just went into the dirt and fucking died out. Like it was all good. And he's like, I ain't fucking sending it back up. Disconnect this bitch and let's go home. And he they disconnected and we all left, dude. It's good shit. Yeah, the operator goes home, it's pretty much a done deal. Yeah, fuck yeah.
SPEAKER_00We're out, we're out, bro.
SPEAKER_01We're out, stayed out the gate.
SPEAKER_00So, how do we get more?
SPEAKER_01We need more hours. I think we'll in order to have because oftentimes when the union's slow, the non-union slow too. We just need work, that's true. Economic development, bro. That's true. Um, and so I think I think that there's a lot of different ways we could do it. The community benefits, obviously, is a big one. Um, because you have capital improvements, right? Like the capital improvement plans uh come out and what's capital improvement plans? But like basically, for it's my understanding that uh a capital improvements plan is is what the city, county, and state have budgeted for projects. Like the our taxpayers' dollars go to Excel, like the fuel revenue index uh bill that passed. Um and it got just passed through the county too. Uh basically saying that there's gonna it's uh it's our taxpayers' dollars that go to infrastructure, schools, libraries, all those things, right? So fire fire um stations, police stations. So it's capital improvements. They're they're improving the right. So it's allocated for that. Um and so that's it's it's already money that's allocated, right? And they have to pay prevailing wage and stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00And uh but prevailing wage doesn't really help us with ours, though, does it?
SPEAKER_01No, I mean so some folks, specifically elected officials, our members, let's be honest. A lot of our members don't even know what fucking prevailing wage is. Right.
SPEAKER_00And even though they said it.
SPEAKER_01Wait when I tell them that, right? When I when I tell elected, they were like, What do you mean your guys don't know what prevailing wage is? Well, because they always make prevailing wage. Right. Non-union guys know what a prevailing wage job is because they're like, they get excited, like, hell yeah, it's like, yes, you get to eat steak, no more top ramen, bud. Right. I'm proud of you. Like I'm I'm genuinely happy that you got on a non-union job because you get to see what's a prevailing wage job. Yes, a prevailing wage job. Our members always make prevailing wage, so they don't see a difference in their fucking checks. Right. Right. So, um, and trying to explain that to people, like, well, it's prevailing wage, it's like, yeah, that's not that doesn't help the union. Right. Like, it's great that it's prevailing wage, right? But that doesn't help us. And so uh the prevailing wage is the wage that prevails in each county, right? And so they put out a wage survey every fucking two years, they being the uh the labor commissioner, uh shout out Brett Harris. Yeah. Um and look, same, same thing, right? I hear all kinds of stuff, good, bad, and indifferent. I'm like, oh, that must mean she's doing her job, right? So um they they put out a wage survey, they being the labor commission, it puts out a wage survey every two years, and then every contractor could decide to participate in this or not, and and uh uh they pick the wage that prevails for that jurisdiction of work. Yeah, and so yeah, oftentimes the union wage prevails, and uh so they think like because the union wage prevails that it's gonna be a union job that and that's not always the fucking case.
SPEAKER_00So it's not even a lot of the times local contractors working on the job.
SPEAKER_01No. No, there's some contractors within the United States of America that just chase prevailing wage jobs. Right. Right? You take big and and again, it's not shit talk.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We're just telling the truth. You take these big contractors like QIT, who does a lot of highway infrastructure work, granite construction does a lot of highway infrastructure work. They're not locally based, but they do local work, but then that makes local contractors mad sometimes. Like these motherfuckers ain't even from here, why are they doing our shit?
SPEAKER_00Like, well, they bid on it. I don't know why. Right, they bid on it. And and there's if there's no protections, like I mean, there is an argument to be made that if a local area is funding construction projects and are putting construction workers to work, then maybe the people who pay the taxes in that area that give that money to fund those jobs should probably get the jobs. But yeah, I say that all the time.
SPEAKER_01It's not too difficult to understand. When you have the Raiders coming, the A's coming, or the or the film folks coming, the question always is where's our community benefits agreement? Where's our community benefits plans? Like, where are these community benefit things? Where does the community benefit? Right, right? Like you're using our taxpayers' dollars to build these things, and how do we benefit? But we don't hold ourselves to the same standard? It's fucking crazy, Daniel. And it's a problem, and it's a real big problem. If it's our taxpayers' dollars going to these capital improvement plans, and why isn't it so that our people that are paying to fund the project get first dibs at fucking building the fucking thing? And I've been working on this for fucking three years, bro, and I can't get an answer. It makes no fucking sense. Well, just like when we had um uh what's Howard Hughes, what was that guy's name?
SPEAKER_00David O'Reilly. David O'Reilly on, and I I told him about the contractor that came from out of town. Now that was a private job, that Howard Hughes job. But that same contractor, right, that put in those windows that all failed, was from Utah. That same glazing contractor was doing a library in the city of Las Vegas with it was a public works project. So a publicly funded project with a contractor from out of town that brought all their workers in from out of town. None of those people pay taxes here, and our contractors didn't get a job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's the thing people don't understand. So they yeah, I I believe in everyone has the right to fucking bid. But it's also it go it goes back to the same thing, man. It's our taxpayers' dollars. It should be I don't like outside contractors. I don't I really don't like outside workers. Yeah, like it's it's on on prevailing wages. On public works jobs. Yeah, public works projects, bro, because it's our fucking money.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we have people here that aren't working, that that are sitting on our out-of-work list while their tax dollars are being used to build projects for jobs for people that aren't even here.
SPEAKER_01Did uh Aaron send you the email about the misconception sheet? Let's see here. A A Ron. Aaron Ron. Ibarra. Shout out him, man. That kid is fucking came a long way, bro, from where he was. Proud of him.
SPEAKER_00But he didn't listen to you and send it to me, so he didn't send it. Never mind. Take that shop out shout out back. How do we get the municipalities to make sure that local people go to work first?
SPEAKER_01So I sent them agreements and proposals, and and it's funny, bro, because some of your best friends on the other side love to think that like they're the ones that are like holding this up, like, yeah, we're holding them up, blah, blah, blah. But it's like I I've already started the fucking process, man. Like, we we we're talking to city and county folks about what it looks like, and they keep calling it a fucking PLA, and I'm like, dude, it's not a PLA. Like a PLA doesn't benefit the community, right? A project labor agreement just assures that all the workforce is fucking union, right? And a community benefits agreement is benefiting the community. How? Because we hire folks from the community, we make sure that a certain percentage of folks on the project are from the community, right? And so that's that's one of the biggest things. That's that's the key difference is the workforce on the project. And um so when I present it to them, they always say, Well, it costs more money, this is gonna be expensive. Well, how is it more expensive if it's a prevailing wage job? Where where where is the price gouge? It's already prevailing wage. It's already the wage that prevails in the county, right? So, and it's not well, non-union can't bid the job. Where does it say that? I and I asked him legitimately, Daniel. I'm like, show me in the agreement where it says that. You're your questions are legit. Uh well, well, I haven't looked at it yet. And this is a lot of elected officials, bro. And I'm like, well, tell so you haven't even looked at something, and I don't mind answering your questions. So what I did is I after running into the same questions about five times, we created a whole fucking like a single page with frequently asked questions and answers. He did send it. Did he? Yeah, I didn't have internet.
SPEAKER_00I sorry, sorry. Shout out back, shout out back. I didn't have the internet, dude. Shout out to who? To A A Ron. God A Ron.
SPEAKER_01That's it.
SPEAKER_00So there's a frequently asked questions, huh?
SPEAKER_01So ask the let me like what's the first one? What does it say?
SPEAKER_00What is a community benefit agreement? Okay, skip that. Why CBAs matter in public construction? Come on. Does CBA conflict with local government efforts to support small minority-owned and women-owned businesses? No. Of course not. Will CBAs delay project approvals due to multi multi-union signatures? What does a CBA apply to projects with low thresholds? They should. Who handles compliance and complaints under a CBA? What is the answer to that? The local government is responsible for monitoring compliance and resolving issues within 30 days before escalating them to the labor commissioner.
SPEAKER_01So, and that's the thing, right? So there that's that's the pushback right there from county. And that's what's crazy, bro. You would think it's like, oh, the county commissioners have the power. Yeah. It's the county staff is like the one shutting this down. City staff is the one shutting this down. It's not even like the elected officials.
SPEAKER_00So then you're telling me then that a municipality like North Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Henderson, or the county can enter into an agreement with the building trades to ensure that when they fund a project with with taxpayer dollars, that that agreement can target people in that area.
SPEAKER_01In those areas for taxpayers, the the the people who pay taxes to fight. So you here's a good example, right? You take that um in the historic west side, there was a library that was just built. Man, and shout out, it's a beautiful library, it's great. Um, I'm happy. A lot of non-union folks. My question to the elected officials is how many people from the historic west side that live in the historic west side got the opportunity to build it? That's that's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, I'm trying to help. Not just the historic west side, anybody who needs help. Right. Anyone who needs help. Anybody. What what library was that? Uh I don't know the name of it, but it's like on like MLK and like Lake Mead area or maybe Vegas Drive. Was that West Las Vegas Library? Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Was the Glass Union?
SPEAKER_00No. The Glass was a glazing contractor. That was the same library? From Utah.
SPEAKER_01Jesus Christ. How many did they hire apprentices? Did they use the apprentice utilization?
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, they had to hire an apprentice per the Apprenticeship Utilization Act. We sent them an apprentice and they they deducted Utah State taxes from that apprentice. And we said, hey, time out. Can't do that. And they're like, no, no, that's our company's from Utah. Everyone pays taxes. And we had to have our attorneys write a letter to the contractor. This guy doesn't live in Utah, and this guy doesn't work in Utah.
SPEAKER_01That's fucking nuts, dude.
SPEAKER_00Can you believe that?
SPEAKER_01So they're on a prevailing way, a public works project, on a public works project in Nevada, and they're they're deducting Utah tax.
SPEAKER_00They were deducting Utah state income tax from it.
SPEAKER_01And then when I go tell the county this or the city this, and not to pick on one or the other. When I go tell the municipalities this, they say that I'm full of shit. They're like, no, no, our reports show. Yeah. And I'm like, what do you like? Here's a picture of the check stuff. They don't fucking believe. They're like, I said, go drive on any public works jobs, bro. You see, you will see out of state fucking license plates. I don't need to go talk to them. Like, what is this? Yeah. It's uh uh it's it's frustrating. It's frustrating, bro. It is so fucking frustrating because again, they and then they'll just like they'll they'll just throw an extra log in there to create a log jam, and that like I said, time just fucking runs out and they just keep kicking the deck kind of down the road. Like, well, that's not true. Well, let us look into it. We'll we'll we'll conduct a survey and we'll ask how many people. It's like so. Do you you want to trust a survey where you're trying to catch people doing something wrong and you're giving them the ability to fill out the survey? You really think they're gonna say, Yes, we have 15 people working out of state here. Right. No, of course not. They're just gonna say that they have the 10 people who are local, right?
SPEAKER_00Like, so we need uh we need to start.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, bro. How do we do that? I don't think it's to be discussed on this podcast, and not because it's illegal, it's just we're still working on it, dude. You know, it's fucking hard, dude. It's hard. Fuck it. Pete's gonna have his work cut out on this podcast, huh, brother? That's alright. Are we gonna have to edit some shit out? I think a little bit. Nothing crazy. Nothing crazy. You just have to watch it finally, because you never watch it.
SPEAKER_00I know, I don't like to watch them.
SPEAKER_01Why?
SPEAKER_00Because then I then I get in my head and I want to edit everything out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_00So I just I'm like better just like fuck it. Let's release it and see what happens. Maybe I said something stupid. Maybe some members are gonna get pissed at me. I don't I don't remember what I said. That's alright.
SPEAKER_01You gotta stand by stand on my stand ten toes down on business. You know? You know? I don't know. I don't want to get canceled over this fucking thing. Nobody's gonna get canceled over this, brother. What do you what does that mean?
unknownI don't know. What is that?
SPEAKER_01I didn't what are you alluding to, Daniel? Did you hear something about me or something? Is there someone out there talking shit about me? Never. Alright. Never. I couldn't fucking why? I didn't hear nothing. I don't know either. Anybody who talks nothing from nobody. Yeah. No, I don't know, dude. It's good, man. It's good shit, dude. Everything's good, dude. I'm looking forward to 2026. I think Building Trades is gonna have a good year. Do you? Yeah, I think I think we good. We got elections coming up. That's gonna be fun. This podcast is gonna get political, right? I hope not, dude. I told you, like, I remember when we first, when we first, I mean, we're fucking 12 episodes in, which is pretty fucking crazy. Uh 12 episodes in, uh, we have a whole new fan base, which thank you for watching, fans. Please, man. I love I love all my fans that study this and go through this with a fine-tooth comb, man. Thank you for subscribing. Smash that like thanks for supporting like, follow, and subscribe. Fuck yeah, thank you all for fucking supporting using us and supporting us. Yeah, right. Because I really appreciate it. Keep listening, keep on keeping on, dude. It's amazing to have the new guest. But but that's what I'm saying, dude. So 12 and and I had a vision for this podcast as member outreach to talk to our members, and that's what we're gonna do. Yeah, so we talk the way we talk to our members, right? I don't say anything on this podcast to uh like try to try to fake the fun, like you said, bro. They know they know when we're wearing mask and we're pretending.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we're this podcast is for our membership. Yes, and so and you gotta understand that our membership has A problem on the job sites with drawing dicks on tools. Dude, you know, not just on tools. That's our audience. At Raider Stadium, the safety team had to pull everyone together, the general contractor, because there was a lot of dicks getting drawn everywhere. And they had to say, hey, we gotta stop drawing dicks on stuff, guys. Like that's our target. A full public service announcement.
SPEAKER_01So let me say it here. Please stop drawing dicks in shit house walls.
SPEAKER_00Not it's not just on the shit house walls, dude.
SPEAKER_01It's on tools. Tools, yeah. But not on the gang box.
SPEAKER_00Probably on the gang box. Not on our gang box. Not on ours, but there's gang boxes with dicks drawn on them. Dude, Pete, you better not edit anything on our gang box logo. So I mean, but my point is, you know, we know who our members are and we know who we're talking to, and this podcast is for them. It is to inform them about union issues, it is to inform them about maybe union politics, right? Because that's gonna happen. Uh bring members on, have them tell their stories, how you know how the unions have changed their lives, or you make giving them the possibility to to live the American dream. That's what it's for. And uh, if people don't like how we talk, don't listen. Walk a fucking job. Yeah. And listen to how they talk. That's who that's who we are. Or do we want them walking jobs?
SPEAKER_01They'll shut the job down.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I don't know. I don't know either. Get on there, go walk a fucking job.
SPEAKER_01Here's my thing, bro. You don't like you don't like what's being said from Daniel on this podcast. Stop listening. Stop listening if I offend you. You know? If Daniel offends you, stop fucking listening. If I said something out of line, I mean we gotta have another. You you pick the next guest. I want you to pick the next guest. I got so we got David O'Reilly. This is a good one. I got Ruben. You put you got Ford. Yep, Aaron. Aaron. And I got Lombardo. Great episode, by the way. It was a great episode. Oh, but both of those were good, bro. Both of them were good. Lombardo was good too. Lombardo, uh, it's it's crazy, bro. Uh somebody, somebody sent me a message like, I can't believe you got the governor on. Who do you know? It's like the governor. They can't even it's weird, bro. It's funny. It's funny, dude. Like uh 2026, bro, is gonna be fucking great for all of us. I think it's gonna be great for unionism, it's gonna be great for organized fucking layers. I don't think so. I think you know, with new leadership at the helm of the uh the state, you know what I mean? Um, I think we're gonna be good. He's eight Elaine Marzola, I think the Senate has to be determined. DMM always does a kick-ass job as the state party chair. Yep. She's she's she works her ass off, bro. You know what I mean? She does a fantastic Danielle Minro Moreno, I think, is very much underappreciated by a lot of fucking people. She does a phenomenal fucking job as a state party chair. Uh she did a great job in the legislature. She's gonna be fucking missed. Um I I don't know, man. I don't have enough good things to say about her, but I feel like she's never given her due. They never a lot of and all of the unions, right? We we tell her thank you when we see her. Right. But she is so impactful that we just take it for granted, I feel. You know what I mean? So if you watch, I don't know if I doubt she's a fan. Why? I don't know, because she's got better shit to do. She's got the state party to fucking run. But hey, thank you, DMM. I really appreciate all you do for working families of Nevada. She's you said that right in the camera. I did, bro.
SPEAKER_00I was looking right at her. I felt like I was looking into her eyes almost. Well, here's what I'll tell you. Hey, tell me uh members, stop drawing dicks on everything. Jesus Christ. No more dicks on the tools. Huh? Can you not grab the mic with both hands when you say that? Please. Stop drawing dicks on stuff, guys. What is wrong?
SPEAKER_01We're adults. Yeah, we're all are we? Not really. Barely, bro. Barely. I think our just our age. What I uh well, doing all the mental health work and substance abuse, uh, adolescence behavior was a new term I learned um uh uh of why we act the way we act, because we're adolescents. And when we're immature at work, it's our inner child coming out at work because we feel comfortable at work to act like the inner child that never got to play at home. That's fucking that's what I learned. How fucking crazy is that? Where did you learn this? Uh a professional. Okay. Seriously, legitimately, a fucking professional who went to school for men's mental health.
SPEAKER_00That makes sense. Yeah. Job sites are fun. That's what I miss the most from being in the field every day is the bullshitting and the fun that I had with those fucking guys on the jobs. It was fun, dude.
SPEAKER_01And when I became a union rep, I didn't realize how much shit because it as an apprentice, you're just living. Yeah. Right? You're just you're just surviving. And then as a journeyman, it's whatever. You're just minding your own business. You just want to do the job and go home. Right. And then when I got into like management and like that, I just cared about the job and making money. And then when I got into union leadership, I remember this dude was like, the complaints I got, one guy told another guy, like, I'm gonna put my babies inside of you. And I was like, what the fuck? And he filed a grievance, bro. Yeah, and I I had I had to represent him and I said, Hey bro, like, you guys are both members. Can we just work this out somehow? And uh it ended up getting worked out, but I was like, Oh my god, dude. I was like, stop telling people you're gonna put babies in them. Yeah, please. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you, bro? Grow the fuck up. And he laughed. He thought it was the funniest fucking thing, dude. This guy uh he went by the port chop, was his nickname. Yeah, yeah, guy was pretty fucking funny. I remember sometimes it was like they just kept him on the job just because he made people fucking laugh. And then I as a union rep, I'm like, well, I gotta represent both you guys. I was like, we have to work putting him in the room, kind of like you said. The it's like, guys, let's be professionals. Yeah. You know, we're grown ups with my mohawk in fucking gateway. Are we? Yeah. Yeah, are we? I don't know. This is a great episode, man. I like it. I think we'll get a lot of good clips out of this one. I think we'll get a lot of good clips. I think it's gonna be fun and fine. And it feels good to just be loose and shed a little out, dude. This was needed. I'll think of a guest to bring on. Alright. Bring a guest, bring a good one. Bring even a bad one. Like, I feel like I feel like we need a bad episode. We haven't had a bad one yet. What do you mean? Like just a shitty one? Yeah. This was this was our shitty one. Is it? I think this was so good, but it's shitty because it went nowhere. But it was good. What do you think, Pete? Pete doesn't care.
SPEAKER_00He's just shout out Green Apple Studios. Yeah. Oh you need people to build it? We know some guys. I mean rebar people can't really build anything. Yeah. No, and all the concrete board player.
SPEAKER_01Alright, are we good? That's good. Alright, man. Let's sign out. Let's sign out. Gangbox out.