A Contractor's Story

Dear John,

You don’t yet know who I am but maybe you will by the time you finish reading this.  I am writing you because I don’t understand why you say the things that you do and am hoping that maybe we can have an open, honest dialogue so that I can better understand your perspective.  To help you understand me and who I am, I will begin by explaining where I come from.  You know me well.

I am a proud Union Local 602 member, a Brother to my many UA Brothers and Sisters.  Many years ago, like most of my Brothers and Sisters, I attended the union apprenticeship school taking all of the required classes and fulfilling all of my obligations to graduate and become a proud Steamfitter journeyman.  During my entire career I have NEVER once been late with my dues or assessments as I take my role in our Local seriously.  I understand our Local depends on me and all my Brothers and Sisters to stay in existence.

After becoming a journeyman, I continued my education by taking advantage of the journeyman classes on Saturday mornings, one that was actually taught by you.  Thank you for sharing your knowledge!  I wanted to be the best Steamfitter I could because I was taught in apprenticeship school it was my obligation to be better than our non-union competition.  I felt doing my small part would make our Local stronger and that concept is still important to me today.  I worked hard, was dependable and always tried to do my very best and am proud to say that I was never once laid off or fired while providing the skills I had learned for my employers.  My employers gained trust in my abilities and later allowed me to run jobs, holding me accountable for my crew’s performance and craftsmanship.

Several years after graduating and getting married, my wife and I discussed taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities this great country has to offer.  After serious consideration I decided to go into business for myself, anything that any of my Brothers and Sisters can do for about $500 and an investment of a few hours time.  You can do this too John if you desire!  It is simple and is one of the best things about being an American.  There are no limitations in this great land!

After starting my own business I quickly learned that there was more involved than first meets the eye.  I needed to open accounts with suppliers to purchase materials and was surprised to learn that they just don’t give credit to anyone unless that person is willing to show that they are truly serious.  I was asked to sign personal guarantees stating that if my new company failed to pay its bills that I would promise to pay with my own money, even if it required selling everything I owned to do so, including the biggest investment I had ever made, my home.  Since I didn’t always have enough money to buy what I needed for the job I decided I had to take the risk and signed my life away betting on my company’s success, because I was dedicated, well-trained and knew I was good at what I did.  I was younger then but I never dreamt that the risk would become even greater in the years to come.

However, the financial risk was only part of my investment.  The bigger investment came from my time.  I would get up early to get the materials I needed for the day so I could show up to the job prepared to give my customer (boss) a good days work for a good days pay.  Many times to keep all of my customers happy I would work through lunch and coffee breaks to ensure that they were pleased and would call me again the next time they needed the services I could provide.  After work, which sometimes was at the end of a 10-12 hour day, I would go home and do the bookkeeping, invoicing, bill paying, planning and scheduling for tomorrow and the rest of my week.  I would also take time to price new work, write proposals and thank you notes in hopes of keeping a steady paycheck.  I learned to live on just a few hours sleep and was grateful some nights that I got to sleep at all.  I was even more grateful when I got a paycheck because sometimes my customers didn’t pay me fast enough and there were many weeks, sometimes several in a row, where I had to live off my meager savings to feed my family and make my mortgage.

But this still wasn’t the biggest sacrifice I had to make.  The real sacrifice came from what was lost in my personal life while I worked to create a strong, solid business.  I can’t tell you how hard it is when at the last minute I had to call my lovely bride to tell her that we will have to reschedule celebrating our anniversary until later because I had another call to catch.  Or the times I had to tell my children that Daddy would be back as soon as he could and that he was sorry he couldn’t make their birthday party, school play or championship game.  There were times where on Christmas day I had to postpone celebrating the most important day of the year with my family to go jump in the truck to fix a leak or get the heat back on so that others could enjoy their special day.  The sad looks on my family’s face when I walked out the door still resonates in my heart today.

The story doesn’t stop here however.  The good news was that my hard work, risks and sacrifices began to pay off and it wasn’t long before my list of customers grew.  This was great because this meant that I needed to hire some of my Brothers and Sisters to help me, creating additional jobs for our Local which I knew only made it stronger and better.  So I continued to take only what I needed investing the rest back into the company to become even better, creating more opportunities for those who had come to work with me.  The rewards back then weren’t monetary but instead from the satisfaction gained from watching the personal growth in those I had hired (many who have since retired from our company or still work with me) as we built a company with a great reputation.  After all, I knew what we were building was OUR future and would one day be the most important part of our retirement plans.  I only wish everyone in our Local could have shared in the satisfaction we all received back in those days.

As the company grew we recognized that at any point we could have said that this was a good stopping point, that we didn’t need any more.  But deep down I know we all shared the same understanding that what we were doing was not just about us.  I truly believe that we were making our Union stronger and I know we were creating opportunities for anyone looking to create a better “way of life” and future for themselves by simply giving a good days work for a good days pay, and showing a little integrity along the way.  While we have made mistakes and are by no means perfect, these are values we still hold dear and the things that have allowed us to continue through the tough times where so many others have failed.

As I read through your blog and look at your Facebook page to say I am disheartened is an understatement.  Somehow you have made me out to be a greedy villain trying to rob my Brothers and Sisters of their pay and benefits.  This is simply NOT true!  Most everyone who works with me receives more than we have bargained to pay in both wage and benefits.  And I am even more offended when you call my Brothers and Sisters, the ones who built this company and many like it, the ones that make it possible for our Local to even exist by paying their dues, “bootlick lackies”, “apologists” and “company men” as though working for the wage and benefit we have agreed to is some sort of transgression.

You continue to give them half of the story, spin the facts and take topics out of context to mislead them.  Shame on you John Sullivan!  You are supposed to be their leader and serve them, not put them down and try to create a revolt.  I can only wonder what your true intentions really are as these tactics serve no one!

Do you know who I am yet John?  You should.  You know me well.  I am 90% of the contractors that you continue to put down as though we are the enemy.  We are NOT!  We are on the same team!  We need our good Union members as much as they need us.  Without the members we are nothing.  But remember without the contractors the members are just numbers sitting on the bench.  The enemy, if there truly is one, is the non-union pipefitter and HVAC tech who accepts lower wages, benefits and standard of living.  They ride our coattails every day to determine their salaries and rob us of our work by undercutting our prices.  And you of all people are enabling our enemies by publicly ridiculing us all.  Our enemies are watching our every move and you can trust that they are taking advantage by pointing out to our customers that while we may do good work, we are expensive, out of control and could at any minute leave them hanging as we stand in front of their buildings with our picket signs protesting instead of taking care of their needs and meeting their critical deadlines.

What are you doing John?  And better, WHY are you doing this?  I am looking for a fair resolution so that we can continue creating opportunities for everyone while you promote your objectives by any means possible including “agitation”, “cartoons” and “songs” as weapons.  This is NOT a game John and the way you are playing it there can be no winner … unless you are for our non-union competitors.

I look forward to your response as I can’t meet you in the middle of the road when I don’t even know where the road is.  Please tell me John, why???

Sincerely,

Joe

Your Most Important Ally