A Story of Union Ignorance

I was walking down my street the other day and was for some reason paying attention to the surface of the roadway. I noticed all the places where the utility companies had cut into the road to make their repairs. I also noticed markings on the road’s surface in spray paint marking out where the gas, sewer, and water lines crossed the road. This all brought back a memory for me that is about 11 years old.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that organized labor is a problem in my opinion. I say this as a former local President of a prominent manufacturing union in the United States. I’ve seen the lack of action of the international body when their action needed and their pushing of candidates who ultimately dropped out of Presidential races and Congressional races after they took the union’s PAC money. I’ve read the literature promoting political candidates and political positions which work in conflict with the retention of jobs.

All this being known up front, let me tell you a story of something that happed BEFORE I ever took a union job.

I was working as a store manager of a major national electronics retailer during the day and as a bartender at night. I had purposely scheduled myself off on a particular day because I knew that I wasn’t needed at my night job and would have a whole day to rest. A week before, the state had just completed a major resurfacing of the road I lived on at the time and I knew that there should be no reason for my late morning sleep to be interrupted by loud equipment.

At this time I lived in a sleepy bedroom community in NE Ohio. So normal traffic wouldn’t have been an issue either in spite of the fact I lived on a major state highway. But at 7:00 am, on the only morning in weeks that I had to sleep in, a jackhammer shook me out of my bed. The water company was cutting into the freshly laid roadway right in front of my house. I gathered myself, dressed, and went outside to ask the supervisor why they didn’t do whatever work they were doing when the road was torn apart. He informed me that they had their own paving crews and any work that they do where they have to dig, they have got to be employed to resurface that area per union agreement.

In other words, because of their union rules, the water company ripped open a brand new road to change out some pipes or whatever they were doing, just so that their paving crew had something to do. That to me seems a bit stupid and a waste of taxpayers money.

By cutting into the road after it has cured, the water company has undermined the integrity of the road just so their paving crews would have something to do. That means the road wouldn’t last as long as it could have had it not been touched and the taxpayers would have to foot the bill for a resurfacing earlier than expected when the engineers surveyed the work.

So as I inspected the road surface while walking down the street the other day, I couldn’t help but think of that pompous field supervisor that told this to me 11 years ago.

Oh, and just so you know, they have no obligation to tell you that they are going to use loud equipment to cut into that road either. They can just pull up, any time of the day or night (in the event of an emergency) and cut into the road shaking you out of bed and they don’t have to tell you. I was told the only time they have to inform you of their work is if your service is going to be disrupted. Nice huh.

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