On 03-17-13, NICHOLAS BOEL said to TIM RICHARDSON:   
      
      
   NB>Re: RE-Listing The Echo   
   NB>By: TIM RICHARDSON to NICHOLAS BOEL on Sun Mar 17 2013 10:28 am   
      
      
   TR> There I had paid dues to that local for almost 5 years...and gotten   
   TR> nothing in the way of employment, not so much as a single referal, or   
   TR> chance to put an application in to one of those large companies, even   
   TR> though the heavy equipment\driver job situation back in those days was   
   TR> really booming around here.   
      
      
   NB>I can definitely see why you quit, then. I actually haven't heard anything   
   NB>good about the teamsters around here either, but that's another story. A   
   NB>good friend of mine actually left the teamsters to haul hazmat. Better   
   NB>pay, but he's gone a lot more.   
      
      
   NB>Our trade is more of a 'feast or famine' kinda deal. When work is good..   
   NB>everyone's working. When work gets slow, only the most skilled seem to   
   NB>stay working.   
      
      
   I'm reading in th epaper and seeing on TV news broadcasts all these new   
   casinos and hotel complexes gettin' built in Vegas...Reno...and come to find   
   out...the main financing behind a lot of them is pension fund money from   
   unions! What the hell! When was the last time you were Vegas or Reno and got   
   `comped' in a hotel\casino? Me neither.But if you belong to one of the big   
   international's.....it was OUR money that built a lot of them! And I couldn't   
   even get a lousy job out of the teamster's local.   
      
      
   Friend of mine paid dues to the teamsters\heavy equipment for many years. He   
   worked for one of the big construction outfits in the county. After all those   
   years of paying...he had a heart attack and was told he couldn't work any   
   more.   
      
      
   The union paid the hospital bill, his follow-up and a stipend. One week after   
   the doctors told him his working days were over, the union notified him his   
   benefits were at an end! He had to go on disability, which wasn't a whole lot   
   of money. About a year later he was losing his mobile home because the   
   disability amount didn't cover the space rent per month. And while that   
   process was going on he had a fatal and died. I went over to see him one   
   Saturday morning, his front door was half-ajar...his truck in the driveway..   
   but I couldn't get an answer. Thought he was maybe at one of the neighbors, so   
   I went home. That Monday morning I went back and the door was still ajar like   
   it had been, so I went and got the manager and we went in the side door   
   together. Found him laying on the living room floor just in front of the   
   breakfast counter. He wasn't yet 50 at the time.   
      
      
   The union didn't even send a sympathy card. They'd known him for over 20 years   
   and they didn't even send a sympathy card!   
      
      
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   *Durango b301 #PE*    
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