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Image from the NY Post
Biddy Early's seems to be one popular venue: The Post's reporters noticed the bartender knew the names of a group of workers who came in on Thursday—the workers "sucked down four beers and four shots of hard liquor each in about 50 minutes. That much booze would likely result in a blood-alcohol content of 0.14 to 0.16 percent -- twice the state's definition of drunk." They said they were working on the 1 train station at the PATH hub—and then they went to work at Ground Zero.
Another favorite watering hole: Uncle Mike's. Here's how the Post describes the welcome one reporter got last Wednesday from workers enjoying a few drinks:
At 12:15, a female Post reporter walked in. The customers approached her, asking who she was. She said she was from out of town. One spotted her camera and said, "Take a picture of us!" They posed, and she took a single photo.The Port Authority told the Post, "The Port Authority does not tolerate this behavior and has a very strict no-alcohol, no-smoking policy," adding that its inspector general's offices does weekly sweeps. Maybe the sweeps need to take place at bars?The grinning gang told her they were all ironworkers helping build a waterfall that is part of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
When the reporter went to the bathroom, the bartender yelled, "Why would you let her take your picture? What the f- - - were you guys thinking?" She said the reporter could have been a labor investigator.
The bartender reached over the top of the bar and rifled through the reporter's shopping bag, saying she was looking for the camera.
"Delete the picture," one of the workers said.
They didn't find the camera.
Last year, WCBS 2 did an investigation of on-the-job drinking by construction workers: "At an Upper West Side watering hole, it seems like it's happy hour, with patrons clinking glasses and guzzling booze -- except it's noon, and the construction workers having some drinks still have to go back to work building a high-rise condo complex nearby."
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It looks like they need random, on the job, breathalyzer tests for construction workers. It's not going to happen of course. There's always the union and plain, old, inertia. Some accident will have to occur before anyone moves to solve this problem.
As for DWI's, there should be jail time and vehicle confiscation for that offense. That's dead serious.
Remember...build safer, build union
^ BULL SH!T
You don't wanna know HOW MANY times, on HOW MANY different jobs, my fiance has come home or called me on his lunch break pissed off because he watched the rest of his Local 3 Union "Brothers" go in to the bar for lunch and come back stumbling to work the rest of their day... the only thing f'ing union is good for is covering for these sorry drunks, THAT'S IT.
I told my fiance to say something, think about being a union electrician in this city, they are NO small projects, sober, these jobs take concentration and skill, but g-d forbid he was the whistle blower, he'd get benched before anyone of those drunks.
Know the facts first, this abuse is so rampant through out these unions, and NO one ever does or says a damn thing, except continuing to cover up.
I think this might be an ethnic issue. Are there any names that are exposed.
Why not, even if they get caught none of them will ever get fired...
thanks Unions and your political enablers! you fucking bunch of miserable swine
Look.
Union construction workers are hired by the day.
If we screw up, by 1:30 PM that afternoon WE ARE FIRED.
It's in our union contracts - I should know, I'm a shop steward!
If these men were impaired to the point where they couldn't work THEY WOULD BE LAID OFF ON THE SPOT!
Since they are still working - obviously they are not impaired.
Construction workers drinking over lunch? Shocking. Obviously this is some brand new development, indicative of the bad turn the country has taken in the 21st Century.
so that's why 8 years and it's still a hole in the ground.
no wonder, no wonder. I bet these are the guys who are against welfare yada yada yada joe the plumber.
You people are way too hard on the unions. Do you realize how much dirt is in a hole 1000 feet by 1000 feet?
A relative of mine who worked at NASA told a similar tale. These very uptight, one micron tolerance guys would break for lunch, drink everything in sight and then return to work acting and appearing as if nothing happened. Obviously all of that really helped their safety record...
Once again you are totally too hard on the working people, especially those that work for a union.
To begin with, the average union worker has to get up in the morning at like 4AM (because he lives outside the boros) to get to work by 7. After having a coffee and a Danish they have to start work by 9. Then there is cleanup at 10:30 so they can have their morning break so they can start back at 11:20 in time to clean up for lunch which starts at 11:45. Lunch, depending on how your boss feels goes to 12:45 to 1:00.
The steel delivery wasn't on time so the guys were left off early.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE? The guys are only following union rules.
To be more accurate (and to quote from the union agreement I'm most familiar with, the New York City District Council of Carpenters-Association of Wall-Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of Greater New York contract) we start work at 7, take a 10 minute coffee break somewhere around 9:30, work til 11:50, get ten minutes to wash up before lunch, take lunch from 12 to 12:30, work til 2:20, get ten minutes to pack up our tools and wash up and then we go home at 2:30.
And our work is very different than what you do sitting at your little desks!
We lift heavy materials and install them, in the place where the architects want them.
That's the short version, there's a lot more to it than that.
And few of you white collar folks could do our jobs!
I install the desks you sit at - one of the easiest jobs in construction, a hell of a lot easier than structural ironwork - and I know that none of you pencil pushers could handle my job FOR A DAY!!!
So cut the shit!
They day you can work even 10% as hard as we do is the day you get to have an opinion on what we have for lunch!!!!
Thanks Fred Flintstone for the union update. Yeah it's hard work and I would binge drink too if I had to lug sheetrock, plywood and hammer nails all day. In the union handbook does it mention how many union workers need to stand around with the orange flag? What about the amount of goons making kissy face at the ladies? yeah go Union!
Greg -
I've done both types of jobs. I worked construction as well as road work for and during (and after) college. I've also worked pencil-pushing jobs editing documents, and I flipped burgers for 6 months because I had to. I now have my PhD, and I work myself into the ground doing science research for little pay.
Of all of the jobs I've had, construction was by far the easiest; it took the least amount of mental focus, and the pay, relative to the amount of time worked, was great (especially when compared to flipping burgers). Plus, while we did a lot of heavy lifting, union rules usually dictated that you needed so many people and machines to help, that it really wasn't much harder than your average gym workout. The worst part was having to share the same physical space with goons that had no aspirations beyond getting lap dances and drinking themselves blind.
I stopped in Duane Reade on North End Avenue at lunch time a couple weeks ago and waited behind a long line of construction workers buying beer. I assume they were working on either the Goldman Sachs building or Milstein Properties apartments.
And in other news, the earth revolves around the sun, and gravity makes things fall down.
Is this only OK when office people go out for lunch and kill 1 or 2 bottles of wine? Is it just blue-collar guys that earn snooty disapproval?
Hey,GREGORYABUTLER, you chose the profession so deal with and dont make add your stupid sarcasm to what other people do. Cause its the people that sit at the "little desk" that you build that do things that make the world revolve around you. Just because you lift "heavy materials" doesnt give you a free pass. Its part of your job, if you dont like find another profession but dont make fun of us cause we dont do it.
Looks like we won't have to wait for a terrorist attack to watch these towers fall.