I’ve had similar experiences with union workers. And, they are NOT all that proficient at their jobs.
Most power plants would not get the elevators working in the boiler houses until late in construction. I saw union guys sitting on their asses for 20 minutes on the ground floor waiting for the elevator to come to take them to the second floor. And the stairs were right NEXT to the elevator. There would be long lines of guys waiting for the elevator to go up a few flights and most of them were in serious need of some exercise.