When dealing with labor unions, the best advice I can give anyone in the contracting and plumbing industry who is thinking about signing up with a union is to make sure you are fully aware of all of their rules and regulations. I cannot tell you how many contractors I have worked, including myself, that have had problems with labor unions. Early in my career I was in a carpenters union for about five years. I was a pieceworker, which means that I got paid per section of the project. This is not what the union wanted. They wanted to pay workers by the hour.
One of the fundamental principles of a union is a better quality of life. They don’t believe their members should physically work as hard, or for long hours. I am not sure how it is today, but for a while there, in the 1980’s, the unions got really corrupted, and really out of control – So be careful and gather as much information as you can.
This does not apply to most contractors throughout the country. If you are a plumber working in Atlanta Georgia, with five or six people working for you, you’re not working with a union. This is a whole other deal. Unions are people who are working on hospitals, and civic center buildings who have the money to pay for this kind of operation. It cost a lot more to hire people in a union.
I can go on and on about problems I have seen with the union, but at the same time, they do serve their purpose. If you are a contractor and you think you may be able to make a few more dollars if you go into a union, by all means do so. Just make sure you know what you are getting into, because the last thing you want is to enter a union and not be able to get out.
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