Posted on 03/06/2018 5:14:47 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Manhattan’s largest development company says it was snookered into paying union workers $42 an hour — and a lot more for overtime — just to deliver coffee at its Hudson Yards megaproject.
The “Coffee Boys” were part of what Related Cos. calls a widespread scheme of “misconduct” by unions that inflated construction costs at the gleaming new mini-city by more than $100 million.
While the job of coffee boy is usually filled by “the junior-most worker in a unit,” the Concrete Workers District Council assigned that role to two full-fledged union members, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Monday by Related subsidiary Hudson Yards Construction LLC.
One of the workers — identified as “Coffee Boy #1” — also happens to be “the 55-year-old brother of a high-ranking union official,” the suit says.
Adding insult to injury, the Concrete Workers’ coffee boys — who are paid $42.48 an hour, plus $27.39 worth of benefits — actually charge their colleagues for beverages and food, meaning that “although categorized as employees, they are actually vendors,” according to the suit.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
What’s the going rate for cabin boys? Arrrrgh!
You mean there’s nepotism, graft, and corruption in NYC unions? Say it ain’t so!
Mafia / Unions / Government
It’s difficult to see where one bleeds into the next.
Union creed: we’re all equal (but it helps to have a relative in a position of power in the union).
I had my first experience on a union job at a nuke plant in NJ. Our test shack had a salamander to keep the equipment from freezing. During a pause, everybody else went to the potty or whatever and I was left alone. The salamander ran out of gas, so I walked over and refilled the tank and restarted the heater.
When the regulars returned, I mentioned my refueling job. Ruh-roh! I was told I had violated union work rules. They called over the Operating Engineers union steward to confess my sins. He called two guys to shut the heater down and drain the fuel tank.
After a few minutes a flatbed truck rolled up with three guys sitting in the bed, a laborer, an operating engineer, and an electrician.
These three hopped down. The laborer picked up the gas can from the truck bed and put it down next to the salamander. The operating engineer picked up the gas can and refilled the tank. The electrician then pushed the start button and the salamander roared to life.
I was stunned (but warm, finally).
Look for the union label...
I was fired by my Union Steward for working too hard.
I know a fellow who builds and sets up display booths at conventions all over the country.
They refuse to work in NYC because of the unions.
They back into a loading dock.
One union guy unloads the materials onto the dock.
A different union guy loads it onto a cart.
A Teamster then rolls it to the booth site.
All getting a minimum of 30 minutes on their timecard.
Nobody but an electrician can so much as carry an extension cord. Nobody but a carpenter can even pick up a hammer.
Had a crew of 5 union members just standing around, all get around $50/hr. When he asked them if they were ready to get at it, the told him “We’re gonna talk about it a while over coffee first, ‘cause ‘that’s just how it works here’”
And since they have to tear down on Sunday, it’s just the reverse, only at triple time
Thanks for reminding me - the flatbed truck I mentioned was driven by a Teamster. So, four trades required to pour a quart of gas into a tank - about 30 seconds of work that I had done during a lull.
Unions are legalized hostage taking; a sort of protection racket.
My first Pipefitter Union foreman got his start as an apprentice in NYC. His first day on the job was to go to each job location and collect the scrap copper, cash it in, and buy lunch for each worker. He was like WTF! But that was in the 70’s. Out west we didn’t have those type apprentice go-fers.
I’d expect that anyone getting $42 an hour would be expected to turn out some real work.
Back in the early 90’s, I was visiting a very large bakery in New Jersey. We were installing a new time management system and new time clocks. We started the first time clock install and a man comes running down the hallway, screaming at us to stop. He says we needed to be escorted by a union electrician.
We wait over an hour for him to show up. He finally shows up and we start. No no no, we can’t start until the electrician shuts off the power to that area. So we wait another hour. He finally comes back and says only he can put the box in since it is electric. We give him the instructions and tell him to have at it. Nope, it’s lunch time. He will be back in 2 hours.
He comes back from lunch bringing someone with him. Shop supervisor. We have been written up for violating rules. We can not put anything in until the case goes before management, in 3 months. We go to the Plant Manager and tell him this. He says he will take care of it.
The new system is turned on 2 weeks later. The union workers in the plant, without a new time management system, has to go to paper time cards, manually filled out and then checked by the Company’s auditor, with inaccurate time cards being pulled and those people released for submitting false time cards, a company rule. .
The Monday following payday, our case is dropped, we are invited back into the bakery and without union interference we complete the job in 2 days.
An hour later he comes back to see the pile of sand unmoved, and the two Americans milling around doing nothing.
"What's going on?" he yelled. "I give you guys an easy job and you can't get it done in an hour?"
"We couldn't do nothing," said one of the Americans. "We needed a shovel and a broom, and that crazy Chinaman took off and we can't find him to issue the tools."
"What the he...." says the boss. He starts to go around the pile of sand, but just then out jumps the Chinaman.
"Supplies!"
Seems like a lot of these union snafu's rake place in Jersey - here's mine:
Early 90's I was doing contract QC work in an industrial chem (adhesives) plant. I'm pharma so my idea of quality is heavy on the GMP's (21cfr820 too)...
One of the union guys scr*wed up the lot code and applied a series of bad numbers to a pallet of product. I found the error and corrected the codes while the production run continued.
Yikes! Never knew there was a special union talent for putting together cardboard boxes and taping them closed. Not to mention the two other specialities that I trespassed.
Nothing ever came of it because of the money saved and the plant manager was quite fond of my CAPA reports.
Phew, I thought “coffee boys” was code for something much worse.
These East Coast construction jobs ALWAYS fill-up with no-show and low-show jobs for mobsters. Haven’t they ever seen The Sopranos?
My brother and I worked on a huge construction job (Power Plant) during summers when in college. The union steward told us to not hustle. Other workers threatened us if we carried more than two boards when we were fine carrying four. The steward was the numbers runner on the site, etc.
We had a good education those summers! We made good money though at a time when it came in handy.
The unions are still behaving badly and I am hoping to see more right to work states and the ability for members to ONLY PAY DUES THAT GO DIRECTLY TO CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS, NOT TO POLITICAL PAC’S!
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