On 03-16-13, NICHOLAS BOEL said to TIM RICHARDSON:   
      
      
   NB>Re: RE-Listing The Echo   
   NB>By: TIM RICHARDSON to NICHOLAS BOEL on Sat Mar 16 2013 05:47 am   
      
      
   TR> I've worked in rebar plants, in a shipyard, and `rebar-ed' forms to get   
   TR> them ready for concrete pours. Been in unions....don't like them and   
   NB>never TR> have. If an employer's business had a union....I joined, paid   
   NB>the dues, TR> and had a job.   
      
      
   NB>I do it because it's the best money I can make, and best benefits with a   
   NB>great retirement, but I refuse to listen to their political forcings, as   
   NB>most of ones that love to preach it are kool-aid drinkers in some form or   
      
      
   For several years back in the late seventies and early eighties, my mother was   
   a secretary at the Teamsters' Union local which covered both heavy   
   construction truckers (large dump trucks...heavy equipment, etc) and long-haul   
   truckers. Her best friend also worked there in the same capacity.   
      
      
   For several years I belonged to that union....paying my dues every month   
   without fail. The original `initiation' fee was $250.00, and the monthly dues   
   were $20 at first. Which went up sometime in early 1980 to $30 per month.   
      
      
   When I quit long-hauling in 1981 (at that point in time, the days of the   
   `gypsy' trucker were pretty much over with), I went to the union hall to pay   
   my dues and put my name on the `extra' board every month without fail. I was   
   always one of the first eight or ten names on the `extra' list every month,   
   which meant that, as the unionized construction\asphault\paving\fill materials   
   outfits who needed drivers called the union hall, told them how many drivers   
   they needed, and drivers were selected from the `extra' list in the order in   
   which they had `signed in' on the first of the month, I should have gotten at   
   least two or more `calls' almost every month.   
      
      
   Although I was one of the first eight or ten names on the `extra' board every   
   month....and I knew for a fact that anywhere from 20 to 50 drivers\operators   
   were hired by the big companies in the county every month....I never got a   
   call from the union for one of the jobs....NEVER!!!   
      
      
   I later found out (from the friend of my mother's) that `cronyism' played such   
   a strong role in hiring practices in the heavy-equipment\dump-trucking   
   industry here in the county....that most of those jobs were habitually given   
   mostly to relatives\friends-of-relatives long time employees\company owner-   
   relatives....and `outsiders' (like me, for instance) usually had about as much   
   chance of getting hired on by one of these outfits, as the longevity of a   
   snowball in hell!   
      
      
   There I had paid dues to that local for almost 5 years...and gotten nothing in   
   the way of employment, not so much as a single referal, or chance to put an   
   application in to one of those large companies, even though the heavy   
   equipment\driver job situation back in those days was really booming around   
   here.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
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   *Durango b301 #PE*    
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