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In reply to the discussion: A lot of people here experienced the Good Old Days very differently than my family did, I guess [View all]Ghost in the Machine
(14,912 posts)I just related what I heard. Back in those days, I was in 2nd, 3rd or 4th grades so I was not personally involved. Back in those days, ALL of the Trade Unions stuck together, and nobody saw anything. The common answer was "hey, it's a construction site, people 'trip and fall' every day!" Bad things can happen when someone comes in and tries to take away your livelihood and/or reduce the standard of living in which you have become accustomed to
I've SEEN some things that happened to 'scabs' trying to cross picket lines, and it wasn't pretty, either. I got paid to stand on the picket line, but it wasn't near enough to pay my bills and feed my family. I never participated in any of the violent actions against the 'scabs' either, though.
In 1999, I was a foreman of a commercial roofing crew. We were doing a big 3 story building in Aiken, SC. As we were pulling into the jobsite one morning, I could plainly see ice on the metal decking that we had to work on. I told my crew that we were going to wait about an hour, since the sun was hitting it, and then it should be safe to go up. About 15 minutes after we got there, the jobsite superintendent came up to my work van and asked "why aren't you guys on the roof working yet?" I told him "there's too much ice right now, and it's unsafe. I will tell my crew when it's safe to get up there because their safety is MY responsibility."
He began threatening to throw us off of the job and was going to call our main office. I told him "I'll save you the trouble" and called the office myself & explained the situation. My boss supported MY decision 100%. Meanwhile, the jackass had gone up on the roof, cell phone in hand, talking to someone else in our office. The last thing my office heard was "there's no ice up heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrreeeeee.... THUD!" Dude fell 3 stories, broke both legs, both arms, several ribs and split his melon open pretty bad. I told my boss that I had to go, and we all ran over to check on him, with me calling 9-1-1 in the process. We finished the job long before he was ever healed. We did a LOT of jobs for the General Contractor on that site, and I later heard that the jackass was let go, and had never gotten more than the initial emergency care from Worker's Comp because I had warned him several times NOT to get on the roof, plus he broke safety rules by not being in a body harness and tied off as was required for ANY roof with more than a 3 on 12 pitch. The State Board of Worker's Comp ruled that he was injured due to his own negligence and disregard for safety practices.
Did I feel bad for him?? NOPE!, even though I hate to see ANYONE get hurt like that, some people have to learn things the hard way... and your own stupidity can be a very painful lesson to learn. I DID feel bad for his family, though, because they were facing some very rough times ahead due to HIS stupidity and loss of income.
Peace,
Ghost