Getting Along In The Trade

[Chuck65]

I was at the supply house thursday, and I heard the guy in front of me ask for some plumbing strap to hang the secondary pan that he just bought.The supply house was out of strap but offered up duct hanger but only if he bought 100 ft. of it. When he went to leave, I offered him some strap off of my service truck.He acted like he appreciated it and took the strap,but at the same time I could tell that he was surprised that I even bothered to help him.
There is no mistaking that my truck belongs to a large mechanical company here in N. FL.and that it is being driven by a Union Mechanic.There was no mistaking that he either worked for himself or a residential company. I just got the feeling that he would not have offered to help me in the same situation.
I guess what i'm really wondering is.. How do Union and non union techs / mechs get along in your town?
I helped him because I was able to and I am a Christian.(it was the right thing to do).

[21degrees]

[QUOTE=Chuck65;2366322]


That strapping did not cost you a cent, were if it had of you would not give it away. That is the difference between employer and employee. When I work for the union I did not think about cost of products or material. Now I own my own company it means alot. Nice jester though and I would have appreciated it.

[Tiger93rsl]

The HVAC union here in Colorado is not very strong. I work for a large HVAC all commercial company with locations in Arizona and we are not union.

[Some Dude]

You did the right thing, Ive seen it from both sides and ive seen both Union and Non union behave like a holes. Working for myself i still would have given him the strap. There is no reason to treat anyone poorly just because he either is or isnt union. Its what children do when they label each other. When i took my test for my apprenticeship 1500 people showed up in 1993. Im sure they all wanted the education and the union card. Unfortunetly they did not all get one.
Calling someone a nasty name becuase of who they work for is the height of stupidity. [unless its Hitler or morally wrong etc.] According to what some tried to pump into my head , if you arent union you are a sub standard tech, What a bunch of crap. Sad what some would have us believe simply because their afraid.

[smilies]

The HVAC union here in Colorado is not very strong. I work for a large HVAC all commercial company with locations in Arizona and we are not union.

All yellow trucks??

[Wheelbaron]

There is a Union

Seriously though, I could give a crap if you are union or not. I would have been happy to help out. You can never have too many favors to call in. I often will help out another tech if I get the chance, and it pays off. Just the other day I needed a couple of lb of r12, and I knew a guy that had an old tank with a few lb left. Called him up and no problems man, saved me having to convert an old system. If he calls me some day and I have what he needs....

Often it is just a mater of having someone in the trade to bounce ideas off of. Kind of like this site.

[amickracing]

I've often helped other tech's out, some I knew, some I didn't until then.
Sometimes the favor is repaid, sometimes it isn't, but when I do it, I don't expect anything.

Similar deal, I was at a supply house and a guy needed a few hundred feet of hanger strap, but could get by with 10' for now... of course they don't sell that. I told him I could give him 10' to get him by, then gave him a card and told him to go to our shop (he was from out of town) and they'd shear up what ever he needed. The company ended up doing some work for him to help that project along as well as making the strap he needed.

Probably too fairy tale ending, but I think to some degree fellow tradesmen should stick together and help the other out when ya can.

[mo-flo]

i think amick hit it,we are fellow tradesmen and americans....union or non-union.....i also believe what comes around,goes around...you did a good deed.

[Chuck65]

Thank you for all of your replies. This thread helps to affrim my thoughts that most people in this trade are nice decent people unless they are given reason to be otherwise. No good deed goes unrewarded.21 Deg. was right in that the strap was already paid for,(I had to get 50 feet of it to get any at all).Even if it had been paid for out of my own pocket, I would still have offered it up.I try to waste very little and save as much "stuff" as I can store on my truck.

[yellowirenut]

being non-union myself i have plenty of Union friends..only one takes it a bit to far (only drinking union made beer and that sort of thing). Plus we are not a big shop so we work hand in hand with a union mech. contractor when we need piping welded up. Only bad run in i had was with a former employee of our company who went union and opened his own shop..i refused his business card because he was bad talking my boss and then told me he did not want a non-union hack anyways. I think that was more personal than a Union thing

[markettech]

I'm going to leave the fact that you took something that did not belong to you and gave it to someone else alone.

Having said that, it was a very nice gesture on your part to help out a guy in need - union or non-union.

I'm a union contractor, some of the closest business relationships I have are with non-union contractors/employees (although I do have good business relationships with union as well).

Point being (as others have already hit on) it should not matter what we are (union/non-union)......but who we are (fellow tradesmen and brothers/sisters in Christ).

[ammoniadog]

We are a union shop but most of the time when we need to contract out for an electrician or crane they are non union. I've gotten to know a few electricians pretty well and I sometimes give them crap about being non-union but I don't take it too seriously.

There are good and bad things about being union or non-union. Just like democrat vs. republican or anything else that some people get all worked up about. I don't believe it's right to push your beliefs on people or treat them like jerks just because they have different values than you.

[markettech]

There are good and bad things about being union or non-union. Just like democrat vs. republican or anything else that some people get all worked up about. I don't believe it's right to push your beliefs on people or treat them like jerks just because they have different values than you.

^^^This is EXACTLY the way I look at it.^^^


If union is good for YOU (the individual), great - go for it. If non-union is good for YOU (again, the individual), that is great too.

Who am I to tell YOU what is good for YOU??