"Ivan Vegvary" wrote

I hope things have gotten better now but I remember a time in the late
60's, highway construction, California.

Two masons were setting Manhole and Catch Basin grates on a highway
construction job. They would set one, on average, every 80 to 100 feet
apart. Takes about 1 to 1.5 hours to properly mortar a rim in place to
the right elevation, tilt and grade. Sitting in the truck is a Teamster.
The two masons (union) were not allowed to move the pickup 80 feet between
manholes. Talk about union inefficiency and public cost!!!

I was a diver on the Weeks Island Strategic Salt Dome Reserve Oil line that
ran from Weeks Island to Convent, La. Our part was the part between the
levees of the Atchafalaya River Basin, roughly from Franklin to Pierre Part,
La.

They had laborers doing diving work before us. Swimming lines under
pipelines in muddy water. Working in alligator and leech infested waters.
The laborers could not do some things like accurately place sandbags
underwater at crossings, and some just got scared and refused to do the
dangerous work. So, we were called. We were given Davis-Bacon wages.

The job was for Bannister Pipelines, the same company that did the Alaskan
pipeline. Between the unions and the government, the job was an endless
series of amazing experiences.

There were floating docks that supported pipelines. Cables were strung from
a gas operated winch drum. The operator had two duties. Move the lever up.
Move the lever down. Pardon me, three. Stand there with the motor running,
and the lever in neutral. If there was ANY problem with the lift, an
engineer had to come, and that means even if he had to be flown over from
another location in a helicopter. Even if a spark plug wire came off. An
engineer was required to start the motor, add fuel, add oil, adjust the
choke, or turn the motor off.

After a couple of weeks on the job, they told us that we could not start our
own compressors. They had to be fueled, oiled, started and stopped by an
engineer. We were starting at six AM when we did it, but when the engineers
took over, we didn't get wet before ten. In a diving compressor, mineral
oil is essential in the crankcase of the compressor, or the fatal condition
of lipid pneumonia can kill whoever breathes compressed air from a petroleum
distillate compressor. Well, the compressor needed some oil, so the
engineer put some in.

One man in the hospital.

After that, the powers that be got their heads together and decided that the
diving crew knew enough about their business to take care of their own
equipment. IIRC, it was given status of medical lifesaving equipment, and
we were the only ones qualified to service and operate it. After that, no
one could touch our stuff.

We got along famously with everyone, even though they walked their strict
lines of what they could and could not do within their own job descriptions.
The laborers loved us because they didn't have to dive in dirty water and do
absurdly dangerous things while merely holding their breaths. I had the
pleasure of saving a laborer from drowning, and after that, we were gods.
Two men stood frozen, and I dove in and rescued the man who could not swim.

All in all, it was a profitable adventure. They had electric composting
toilets to comply with EPA, and about fifty union laborers whose job it was
to pick up every piece of visible styrofoam in the water or anywhere to
protect the wildlife. We used big styrofoam billets to float the pipe as it
went off the barges. They'd ride around in boats all day long, and come
back with a bucket or two of styrofoam pieces.

All paid for by US citizens.

Steve