Where do I begin to describe the impact this job has had on me. I think I'll start at the beginning. (duh)

I have been working as a union ironworker for a total of 26 years. Twenty six doesn't sound like near as big a number now as it did when I entered the apprentiship in 1978. I was 25 years old and left my job as a bartender at the Vallejo Moose Lodge to start a new job as an ironworker. I was single, footloose and fancy free. I really never considered ironwork as a career. I already had many different jobs from McDonalds to real estate agent to Mervyns Mens Dept on my resume and I figured this was just another short term way to make a little more money. Who the hell thinks of retirement at the age of 25? Smart ones maybe. I don't have that problem.

After I had worked at the trade for a while I came to love it. It is hard work, but you get to go to the most interesting places. I've been inside computer cleanrooms and the compartment that sewer pipes drain into at the waste water treatment plant. I've been to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sutro Tower. I've seen the Blue Angels fly down Market Steet in San Francisco lower than the 42nd floor I was standing on and have seen the view from penthouse office spaces in San Francisco. I've installed polished brass hand rail and 150 ton transformers.

I have never worked with, let alone for, foreigners before this job. An engineer here and there, but never have I taken orders from someone who was not in the Ironworkers Union. I have never liked working under a superintendent who was from a different trade and have clashed with more than a few in my time. Ironworkers very rarely work for the general contractor on a job. We normally work for a steel subcontractor who usually hires only ironworkers. We don't normally work directly with other crafts or even the laborers. This gives us a self confident, even arrogant, attitude on the job. Most of us work out of the hall, which means that the contractor calls the hall for an ironworker to work on a certain job and we take the job after the BA calls it out the window. After the job is complete the contractor will usually lay off the "hall hands" (as compared to the steady eddies) and I go back to the hall. At this point, as an ironworker, I don't owe the company anything (I don't owe the BA anything either). I filled a need they had and I can fill the need of any other contractor too. I know that I don't need any one company to make a living at this buiness, and this gives me an incredible freedom not many people enjoy. My skill is my job security! If I go on a job and I think they are being unsafe or the boss is a jerk I just "drag up" (quit) and go back to the hall to wait for another job.