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I think it just depends where we are man. I have a neighbor and a friend in the laborers and the operator’s unions and both say employers want people but I literally cold called so many the pst few days with nothing to show for it but maybe 4 potentials.
I’m in Minnesota
In MN construction here, but not heavy highway. I know for a fact carpenter’s union is hiring if you’re open to that, but I know carpentry is not exactly heavy highway lol
I’m open to anything man. So just head over to the carpenter’s union website and go at it?
Also thank you I appreciate it.
Yup. Worth a shot anyway. I did non-union carpentry for a bit and they had a pretty heavy recruiting presence on our sites. They’d be happy to have you I bet.
Good luck — I hope you’re able to find an opportunity. Out of curiosity, do you have any construction experience outside of heavy civil? I know it’s slow around here, but I honestly didn’t realize how bad it was. I assume you’re in the TC metro too?
Thanks man I don’t have any carpentry experience but I’m good with measuring. I’m north of Minneapolis but willing to commute. Honestly if these fields didn’t work out I was leaning towards carpentry. Construction runs in my bones though my dad and my grandpa both ran/run construction companies. My grandpa sold his and my dad builds cabins in Wisconsin.
MN Carpenters 322 has pretty regularly had highway heavy posting on its Jobs board for form carpenters which could be a good in on the civil side and if you know your stuff and show your worth you can get your employer to hopefully sponsor your journeyman card too
Sounds great I’ll check that out thank you sir!
IUOE 49 is getting a prostate exam with concrete culvert this year.
Im an apprentice and in the same boat. Best of luck to you man
Have you tried getting your neighbour or friend to ask in their companies for an interview on your behalf? Connections make a big difference, if those guys are respected in their companies then I’m sure the boss would at least give you an interview on a direct recommendation.
Thanks for the reply man. My neighbor is a mechanic for the operator 49ers and my friend is a laborer for the 563 laborers. The sad truth is I’m not a very good mechanic and my other buddy in the laborers hasn’t really mentioned recommending me probably because they just aren’t hiring.
Sounds like they're leaning towards right to work in your neck of the woods unfortunately
It's rare that you'll get hired by calling the office or filing out applications. Submitting a resume can work sometimes, rarely. I've always found out where the construction companies are working, then go there and speak with the superintendent, foreman. Make sure your dressed to work with all your PPE on. Nearly 40 years working construction and this is how I've got myself hired most often.
Employers saying they're desperate for employees but there's nobody out there, and the employees say nobody is hiring.
They are, and they'd love to hire non-union workers, but they don't want a brick through their window the next day.
So I teach classes in the states and in Canada and this is my opinion. Unions are ok for the workers however every union I've either been part of or been in management for a company they're pretty much organized crime and the politics of both sides or the table is pretty annoying. I liked having a CBA to guarantee yearly raises and provide a bit of frame work but the union strong mentality where you don't do to much bored me to death when I was on the tools and when I was in management trying to make deadlines and schedule getting the guys to finish a task on time was like herding cats. Now this could be a case on the non union side but it's most definitely prominent on the union side now.
Union is OK in some ways but I'm a very happy I don't have to play games and beg the hall for help or actually send guys that actually meet the requirements for the call.
There's a million buyers and a million sellers, all of whom don't know the other guy exists. Bridging that gap is the hard part.
I will tell you we’ve been calling our local operators union weekly and are just told there’s no one. After a month or so there will be one guy who doesn’t show up for the interview. I’m not saying it’s true everywhere and for every employer, but we’re paying above scale
Dang so operator’s are in demand? Thanks for the reply bro.
That is a wide description over an unknown time. I get your narrative but when did employers not find employees and when did employees not find employers? I'm thinking years but maybe you think months. Who knows.
Aim lower with who your reaching out too. Find a foreman or a union rep.
Talk to an organizer.
Thanks man I appreciate it I will try to do that.
Keep working it man. Getting in isn't easy. Once you do it will be worth it.
The question is why do they make it so hard to get in? The union guys are all like 'join your local union', 'live better work union' and all that but getting in seems like it's fucking impossible unless you are related to someone. It's so hypocritical. I really don't think these people actually care about workers, it's just about them getting theirs.
Yeah literally my good friend’s mom hires for the union. I thought great, maybe she can get me in, even though that’s not very fair, even then, when I called her she just told me to cold call all the companies associated with the union and literally none of them answered or were hiring at all whatsoever let alone had an answering machine to leave a voicemail.
Once you're in, it's hard to get you out. So if you end up being a bad employee or coworker, it's their problem for decades,
I’ll keep at it thank you my friend I appreciate it.
I was under the impression to get into a trade union, you find locals, and find out on their sites when they do recruitment and go from there.
You’re right. They open up their apprenticeship programs once every year or two. They’ll give out applications at the union hall(s) one day a week or month for a given period of time. Usually over two or three months. Then everyone that passed the application process will be sent a notice for their scheduled testing. You go take their aptitude test and from their they’ll start calling guys out to the union training sites as applicants. Once the instructors decide you’re ready they’ll find you an employer looking for an entry level employee. Calling around and hunting for a job yourself is really not the way into the unions.
The companies aren't the union and the union isnt the companies. They are separate entities with essentially a business partnership.
Yes sir. I’m just trying to hopefully get a sponsorship from a company working with the union. Thank you.
I’m serious, not joking, find out which is their local boozer. You need an in with the Union or a GC. The Union Pub will be easy to find.
Haha I’ll look into man thank you.
Get on the list, bust your ass and make money for someone else while you wait, and when they finally call pick up the phone. Sincerely: 15 years in non-union and nothing but a fucked up back to show for it. No training, no livable wage, no dignity for non-union.
I’m sorry to hear that man.. I wish you the best. We’re all just trying to survive here.
Have you tried being related to one of the union bosses, or bribing somebody?
That’s about what it’s looking like right now haha. 😂
I trolled LinkedIn, indeed, and all other job pages applying for anything and everywhere. Try www.roadtechs.com for some perdiem outta town work. Look up Civil carpenter for heavy construction. They have lotsa directories.
I will do that now thank you sir!!
Idk I filled out an app on the 49rs website this spring and was called back with a lead for a job a couple days later. Never had a union job before, working on a permit this season then membership next year. It is traveling work and in ND though. Have heard it's slow in the twin cities this year.
That’s awesome good for you man I’ll try to check out the 49ers website my neighbor is a mechanic for the them.
Definitely slow in the Twin Cities. I run insurance rebuild projects, so I’m pulling 60+ hour weeks with all the rain, but I feel lucky to be doing so. Our biggest subcontractor typically does plenty of work outside of our account, but they’re relying on us pretty heavily right now. The owner who I work closely with told me he was talking to a Minneapolis city inspector, and the inspector told him there is usually an extensive backlog — but they’re completely dead right now. Absolutely nothing in the pipeline. Not the best time in the TC.
I’ve only played around with union jobs the last 18 monthes or so, but..
I believe these jobs hire based on relationships and reputation. Coming in cold, you are just another nobody. A GPA doesn’t translate to a good worker. Once you get a foot in the door, maybe you can show some reliability and initiative to keep moving forward. But if that union there is that flooded out, it kinda seems more like a backup plan to have
100% I think you’re right. Thanks for the insight my friend.
Not in construction but I’m a proud union nurse. If we did not have a powerful nurses union here in Oregon, hospitals would happily save money by assigning six or seven patients to one nurse while paying the nurse absolutely garbage wages (between $20-30 hr) for some of the most emotionally, psychologically and physically grueling work imaginable. It’s not the consistent heavy labor of construction, but turning a 500 lb pt, for example, every two hours while they are shitting and pissing themselves 12 hour shift to 12 hour shift certainly takes a toll even on the most seasoned nurses. Talk to nurses in non-union organizations, in states in the south, for example. The nurses are unhappy, consistently stretched too thin, totally numb, and the care of the pts is significantly more dangerous and less attentive—this is a double whammy of misery caused by hospitals trying to save money on overhead by giving unrealistic pt loads to underpaid yet highly skilled nurses. You will receive better, more accurate care in a hospital where the nurses have unionized and are compensated appropriately. Certainly there are lazy people everywhere, but at least in nursing, the idea that you can be lazy and inattentive, and skate by and while still keeping your job simply because you’re in a union is the exception to the rule. Nurses who feel valued and are compensated accordingly have no reason to be lazy, and at least in Oregon, we have nurses unions to thank for excellent compensation, better overall talent acquisition, improved staff retention, and better patient health outcomes, including for those in the construction biz.
Every single Union Civil contractor I can name is looking for someone with your experience. Your post reads really strangely. You say you are looking to get into the industry, but you already have eight years experience. I'll just assume you mean breaking into the Union side of things. Even so you have nearly a decade of experience but you are calling offices? Why wouldn't you hit up a jobsite? I'm also confused why the Union is responsible for an individual company's management being shitty? Unions don't run companies, we try to make sure that you get paid and treated fairly and come home safe at the end of your day. Companies have the "right to mismanage" as the joke goes. It sounds like you know someone that literally does the dispatching for the Union and yet they won't even give you a hint where to look or who to call? Doesn't that sound and feel weird when you type it? Have you scared this person off with your attitude? I used to work as a dispatcher and I had my finger on the pulse on work throughout the province. I put out members first and foremost always but we never had civil guys sitting on the bench waiting. If a non-member with your experience showed up I'd snatch you in a hearbeat.
Something is missing from the story. Either way hope you find your way.
I wonder why these posts are always the same. OP talking about how amazing of a candidate they are and how they can’t find a job no matter what but it’s 100% not their fault. Almost like there is a trend.
I mean unions whole schtick is to drive up wages for their members by artificially limiting competition, why are you expecting open arms? And that’s not a knock or judgement against unions, just the reality of the situation.
That’s a great perspective and that makes sense. Im just trying to find out what to do… go for union or go for private. Thank you.
Like any job, networking and who you know goes a long way. Keep at it
Thank you I appreciate it.
Have you tried Minger? Luke and the guys are awesome, hungry, and growing.
I just added minger to my list thank you so much!!
I just met a cpl guys from mn working in n.d. thought he said they were 49ers. Operating engineers maybe
Heck yeah I love North Dakota but if I did do work there I’d have to come home weekly man I love my pup and need to take care of my mom haha thanks bro
Find where they are working, bring the foreman and workers coffee and donuts…ask who, what, when and how. Ask if you can be a scrub worker, til you prove yourself
Have you tried a sacrifice or burnt offering?
Find out where they are big jobs going on and call that local and ask for a contact for that job.
I don't know what the Glaziers Local is like where you're at, but I know in the Boston area we really need apprentices...
Look into Local 669 Sprinklerfitting as well. If you're near a big city there should be plenty of work
Skip the Union for now. Find a bigger company. If you’re willing to move, look up A.M. Ortega in California.
For pretty much all jobs, all industries: you want someone already working there to refer you.
Any job worth having gets dozens or hundreds of people applying. More than half of those people are going to be terrible at the job. You can interview a bunch, but you still need to hire then fire ones who get through.
But if Jimmy who's worked with ya for three years says his friend Alice is looking for work and would be really damn good at this? The odds of the new hire being good enough go way, way way up.
So you hire referrals before ever looking at resumes that got mailed to you.
It could be someone you worked with before. It could be someone who drinks at the same bar. Doesn't much matter, strangely enough, but you need someone to say "hey, I know a guy".
With inflation through the roof, interest rates at a high, and it being an election year I believe that construction has hit a slow down because owners/investors are being cautious. It’s not the unions ignoring their duties. The UBC has negotiated a big increase in our contract for the next 4 years but they don’t supply the work. The work comes from the owners/investors and the companies that want the work done. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how qualified you are if there isn’t anyone building. If there are union workers out of work searching for jobs and you are the new guy on the list, it’s going to be a while before you will get work unless you can sell yourself to a GC or sub that will sponser you and bring you in. You are trying to join a union of workers that have negotiated the price for prevailing wage jobs and set the standard for everyone else doing that work. You don’t just walk in.
Every shop is hiring and none of them have any work.
"I graduated dude, with a high GPA at that"
But you are trying to get into the laborers Union?
Yes. Not all laborer’s are morons as you’re implying. I like working hard and working my way up in a company union or not.
You seem to have a HUGE chip on your shoulder, lol
563 has been struggling to feed their hands since the bakken busted in 2016. They sold books to anyone who could piss clean for years because they had more work than they knew what to do with and then it all evaporated overnight. Look at Williston these days and all of its abandoned housing developments, they aren’t the only ones who miscalculated.
This doesn’t mean unions are bad. They have 15 year members on their out of work list 12 straight months and obviously don’t need more people when work gets slower every year. Blame the owners for balking at the 10% extra union outfits need to operate.
I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. I make that clear many times above. Just trying to work construction and possibly join a union. How the f am I supposed to know what you’re saying when you say the Bakken busted? I honestly don’t even know what you’re talking about. At this point you’re just verifying why there’s not many good people in the union anymore.
Yes you’ve made it very clear
You have a competent, hungry, and intelligent person inquiring about being in a lowly class laborer position
Don’t these idiot ditch diggers realize that im trying to do them a favor by gracing them with my presence? I even graduated high school!
Homeboy I’d say you’re the one with a chip on your shoulder. Though perhaps it’s more like a boulder up your ass
Okay first of all it’s wildly known laborers are the lowest position you can have in a construction company. So yeah. Lowly. I myself and trying to get lowly. So wtf is your point. And second off, if you can’t graduate high school you myaswell be working at Walmart. I graduated with a good gpa and if you think that holds no merit on my ability to be a solid laborer then that is a fail on your part. Stop arguing with me over nothing and go to bed.
Yeah and this attitude right here is why I wouldn't want you at my company let alone in my union
Cool dude you like hiring people who didn’t graduate highschool with a decent gpa. I’m sure your company is doing amazing and killing it.
Nah I don't like pretentious kids who think they are better then other. Your the type the isn't teachable because you think you know more. It's obvious why everyone said no to you and why you got called out so much here kid. Do yourself and humble your ass before life does.
First of all, I’m 29 years old, not a kid. Second of all, I don’t think I’m better than others. Just can’t believe unions aren’t prioritizing one person over another. I’m extremely teachable. Grew up without a dad but can rebuild engines after years of figuring it out. There’s actually a lot of positive feedback on this post that has helped me so much. The asshat that started this little thread we are on, sure, called me out on something I didn’t even do or say. Btw I’m fine dude. Paid off house and two cars.
Laborer is an unskilled job not saying they are idiots but in a local around me one of their jobs is to clean concrete guys tools. If you wanna join a union you need to talk to that union not the contractor and see when that union is taking applications.
Yeah I talked to my friends mom that hires for the laborer’s union and she just told me to cold call any contractor they’re associated with on their website… I’ve called probably 60+ contractors for just two categories of construction and got like 3 companies saying they’re hiring but they don’t sound confident.. usually a receptionist that doesn’t know if they actually are.
It's how pretentious you sound, my man
Bro just having a good gpa in highschool is not pretentious it just means I’m not going to stare at a fire while it engulfs the entire job site on fire and say nothing.
This post has it, too. You're assuming other laborers are so dumb they're just going to stare at the fire...
Edit: I wasn't referring to the GPA part, more the just another low class moron part
Dude I ran a lawn care crew for 6 years and I treated probably 30+ guys with absolute respect even though they couldn’t find the difference between their and there. If I said laborers are dumb then sure go ahead and say that but I never said laborers are dumb. I want to be a union laborer. If I was that pretentious I wouldn’t try to be a laborer.
... and I quote
" you have an intelligent person inquiring about being in a lowly class laborer position and you're brushing him off like just another moron who couldn't graduate high school"
If this doesn't imply that people who apply to this position are low class morons idk what does
Yeah idk what does. Please tell me a lower position than laborer. I’m literally saying I want to be a laborer. So wtf is your point? Nothing. Go argue with someone else.
In our society? A non union, female laborer :(!!!I'm not trying to argue... you're just upset that you come off as full of yourself. Take care, mate. And in all honesty, gl, and I hope you get a call from the hall soon!
I’m really not full of myself. Literally making a Reddit post looking for advice on becoming a successful laborer. Glad you got your argument fix for the day I guess? lol.
Reach out to your business agent. If they aren’t helping vote them out in the next election cycle.
If you have 8 years experience and you’re not working right now, it has to be because you’re no good. Right??
As a business owner myself, if I get a cold call from someone looking for a job, I just assume you are no good because nobody else wants you.
The best route is to use some kind of connection to get in with a contractor and build from there.
That's bullshit and I bet you've missed out on a lot of really good employees because of this. Sometimes things just get slow where you're at so you need to figure out a new gig, or sometimes you just need a change.
I totally get that you’re 100% right. I got a windfall from my grandfather and bought a house in cash. So I took some time off. Employers need to understand also that not everyone is a slave to employment.
I’ll tell you everything you need to know if you can answer me one question, what is your political affiliation?
Thank you, I stay away from politics. I just try to be a good person and help my community man.
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I don't know what to believe anymore. Employers saying they're desperate for employees but there's nobody out there, and the employees say nobody is hiring. It must be very geographic I guess. Or I am only hearing from the hyperbolic on both sides.