Re: Causes of Ground Faults

["Stanley Barthfarkle" <sbarth@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7didnWIX-L95bRrYnZ2dnUVZ_sSmnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> BTW- you won't get onto any large
>> commercial/industrial sites here
>> without a union card. Ours is IBEW
>> Local #1, the first and oldest electrical
>> worker's union in the nation...
>
> Also the oldest mafia-connected union in Mo.  Why am I not surprised?


Yeah, I never liked giving those bozos my money, especially when the 'A'
card guys (regular electricians, as opposed to our low-voltage 'BA' card)
got all the benefits through the hall. Our dues were tantamount to paying a
small bribe every month in order to gain access to the larger jobsites. When
I started my company, and entertained the idea of keeping my card to access
the big jobs, my "meeting" with the union bosses felt like a shakedown- 4 or
5 slimy looking guys eyeballing me and firing off questions about loyalty,
revenue, etc. Needless to say, my small company didn't end up doing many
commercial jobs here.

On the Trans World Dome project in '95 (which was delayed by several months
mainly because of the squabbles among Local #1), we were carrying in video
monitors for the camera system for the foodservice vendor, who operates a
secure food and liquor storage area, and a highly secure "cash counting"
room. An 'A' card foreman came over and told us to put the monitors down- he
said it was an electrician's job, since they had plug-in cords. It was horse
shit, but our office gave the bozos a couple hundred bucks to haul in our
monitors and set them on our shelves.

I think they never quite got over the loss of FA and conduit jobs after FA
went low-voltage open cable. OTOH, you'll never see any finer work anywhere
in the country than that of our group of guys. Very uniform and
professional.