Prefab Labor Union

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Gary11734

Senior Member
Location
Florida
I was thinking; These shops that are doing large-scale pre-fab should start their own labor bench from there. Bring them in the pre-fab shop and see if they can do 40 hours and have some eye-hand coordination plus can they take direction. Then, send them to the field from there... And, send them out on the work they are doing in the shop if possible. You could expand and shrink the prefab shop as you are bringing the labor in and out of projects. You could also set up a school there. I'm always thinking some crazy notion but it sounds sound to me.

And Mike could give us a good discount on the materials...

What do you guys think! I can't believe I just said that! Hey, I love you guys even though you're a pain in the ...! :)
 
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packersparky

Senior Member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
Inspector
I was thinking; These shops that are doing large-scale pre-fab should start their own labor bench from there. Bring them in the pre-fab shop and see if they can do 40 hours and have some eye-hand coordination plus can they take direction. Then, send them to the field from there... And, send them out on the work they are doing in the shop if possible. You could expand and shrink the prefab shop as you are bringing the labor in and out of projects. You could also set up a school there. I'm always thinking some crazy notion but it sounds sound to me.

And Mike could give us a good discount on the materials...

What do you guys think! I can't believe I just said that! Hey, I love you guys even though you're a pain in the ...! :)

I wish people would explain their thoughts in plain English. I have no idea what "labor bench" means.
 

Gary11734

Senior Member
Location
Florida
I wish people would explain their thoughts in plain English. I have no idea what "labor bench" means.

Yeah, an old term from the union. Sorry about that. And I haven't been in the union since 1986...

"A facility that has the labor available for the field when needed".

The difference here, it's the companies labor. I have them doing pre-fab, but as soon as project calls, they are gone... Also, I would hire from this location and send them to the projects from this Pre-fab location. When the project doesn't need them, they are doing pre-fab or going to school. Good time to do auto-cad, BIM, Navis works since they will be in the design side. Hmmm, the PM's could be in this place, too.

Trying to get labor when you need it is a problem. The material is stable unless copper is going crazy.

I have been talking to some PM's at-large Electrical contractors. They have pre-fab shops but are far from their projects. A way to consolidate the prefab in satellite areas as they build in booming areas seems to make sense.


You can't grow if you have a labor problem. And if you don't grow, you die! And, not having the labor at the right time on the project is where all the risk is.
It appears you could make this mobile, too.

Give me some feedback on why this would not work...
 

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
If you have a lot of prefab work to do and can afford to keep a bunch of employees busy doing prefab while waiting for a project to put them on, this plan will work. I'm assuming this is valid prefab work for an upcoming project or for another client who needs it done. If it's just busy work, you are wasting labor hours and therefore, profits. Your prefab schedule will have to be flexible. If you actually need these people doing the prefab, then taking them away to do other work will impact your business by not getting the prefab done.

From what I've seen, most medium to large jobs spin up slowly. Even if you cannot immediately get all the labor you want from the union hiring hall or a temporary labor pool, usually they can get you more over a week or two. If the word gets spread around, travelers from all over the US will show up to work. This lessens the need for this "prefab pool of workers".

For staffing small jobs and especially service trucks, having people on staff that can move into those slots is much better than hiring from outside. Those jobs are not being overseen by a supervisor and so you have to be sure the person you are putting there knows what they are doing. The only way to do that is to validate and train that person beforehand. Anytime I hire a new service truck tech, I ride with him/her for about two weeks. I observe his/her work, correct bad habits, and train my methods and systems. I only let them go out on their own when I am sure they are doing things to my satisfaction. Doing anything less results in angry clients, bad reviews, unpaid rework, and other headaches.
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
We do large scale pre-fab, and would NEVER consider going union.
No one in heir right mind would pay to go to work.
 

sameguy

Senior Member
Location
New York
Occupation
Master Elec./JW retired
We do large scale pre-fab, and would NEVER consider going union.
No one in heir right mind would pay to go to work.

That is the beauty of the U.S. we are free to make our own choice.
For me 11 years nonunion, it was to continue at low pay, low retirement, limited healthcare, and the bs from "Ill give you a raise in x months on merit". I went to highest pay, retirement, healthcare, and if I get too much bs I have a recourse for dealing with it. Work over 8 hours in a day, time and half, Saturday all time and a half, Sunday double time, unsafe working conditions get resolved, no work in your area travel ( my son worked in Hawaii for a few months, loved it) did I mention retirement, healthcare.
I made my choice and very happy 27 years later I did.
Like I said to each their own!
 

Gary11734

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Using terms from the Union was a bad idea!

The "rats" as I am called need to figure out how to train, plus have a labor pool that we can shrink and expand as the firm grows and contracts. The ABCI has tried it, but I don't see that very much.

A large electrical firm could have enough work to do pre-fab for their jobs and funnel this new labor in and out as they are learning and doing pre-fab. Also, they could evaluate if the new hires have the hand, eye coordination, follow simple directions, and see if they would actually show up for 40 hours. Just get a waiver from the feds we can hire illegals and I would fund it myself right now... Right there, I would have all the labor I could handle for twenty years! That is all that is on construction jobs now, anyways.

If it got big enough, you could have teaching done there, too. And, make it mobile. Build trailers that can be brought into new markets. They are in podunkville right now building Data centers all over the place.

Us old guys are used to brick and mortar and old thinking. Somebody needs to find new ways to retain labor. TRUMP would probably give us the money to start the schools if we actually came up with a plan they could look at.

The Democrats shucked the Unions years ago under Clinton for wallstreet. Somebody needs to get this blue collar labor back. TRUMP can't do it alone...

I don't want this going political. I only bring up the government because they can be a solution that needs fixing.

Nobody has said its a bad idea yet so......
 

sameguy

Senior Member
Location
New York
Occupation
Master Elec./JW retired
Our trade is now looked at, as for the dumb from the general population including K-12. Even the political elite think the construction trades are the jobs Americans don't want.
Master, Jw, apprentice, helper, all had meaning at one time; in my neck of the woods you can't take the Masters until you can prove 10 years experience.
When I was doing estimating, I would walk out of walk throughs telling the other guys to bid high stop low balling; I still had to play the game but was normally one of the higher bidders. Plus I missed basically zero materials and labor. Why am I telling you this, don't use, day labor, crack heads, etc., they cost you money in the long run, put your money into your men/ business.
 

Gary11734

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Our trade is now looked at, as for the dumb from the general population including K-12. Even the political elite think the construction trades are the jobs Americans don't want.
Master, Jw, apprentice, helper, all had meaning at one time; in my neck of the woods you can't take the Masters until you can prove 10 years experience.
When I was doing estimating, I would walk out of walk throughs telling the other guys to bid high stop low balling; I still had to play the game but was normally one of the higher bidders. Plus I missed basically zero materials and labor. Why am I telling you this, don't use, day labor, crack heads, etc., they cost you money in the long run, put your money into your men/ business.

I know your pain. I was in business for 30 plus years.

It's a miracle you can make money in the business but it is possible even with all this...

I had employees that were with me twenty years plus. And, when you find them, treat them right and hold on to them...
 

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
We do large scale pre-fab, and would NEVER consider going union.
No one in [t]heir right mind would pay to go to work.

I can't speak for the economics of every local but in mine the members make much more money and benefits than their non-union counterparts. And this statement takes into account the dues they pay and the fact that our local is one of the lowest paid in the nation. I guess the 1100 members in my local must all be crazy.

I'm wondering now if you discovered you could pay $3/hour in dues to earn $10/hour more (a net of $7/hr) if you would just ignore the offer. That sounds crazy to me.
 

roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
Sorry but this has the potential of becoming a Union verses Non-Union thread so we will leave it here.

Roger
 
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