By Marty Rice 

Welding is a dang good trade, but it, like everything else in this good ol’ life, has its downside too.  Our economy goes in cycles. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down, and sometimes it’s just kind of running along in the middle.

Years ago work had pretty much dried up in Iron Workers Local #408 territory.  I had pretty much had enough of driving anywhere from 100 to 120 miles one way to jobs.  Getting up at 5 A.M. and getting home around 7 P.M. is not a fun lifestyle.

My in-laws were living in the Florida Panhandle at the time, so my wife and I decided to go down that way, hitting locals on the way down. It was not a very lucrative trip! We stopped in locals in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama before making a pit stop at the in-laws.  Man was I ever getting discouraged!  We spent a while in beautiful De Funiak Springs, and took the 35-mile trek to Destin’s beautiful white sand beaches.  After eating a few hundred oysters on the half shell, and washing them down with Tabasco and a few malt beverages, we headed down to Tampa where my Army buddy lived.  He said they were rebuilding the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to replace the old one. (It had been rammed by a ship during rush hour traffic a few years prior.)

Well, we get there and find out there are no union jobs.  Now I’m starting to freak out as we drive to Orlando to see what’s up there.  Arriving in Orlando I was told they would have some work at Epcot Center in a few weeks.  Seeing as how we only had about $200 bucks left, we hightailed it back to Texas.  I had called a buddy and he told me Dallas was booming.

So after about 2000 miles of no work anywhere in sight, I took my wife back home to Amarillo and headed down to Big D.  I pulled into Iron Workers Local # 481 only to see about 80 guys standing in line at the hall! 

“What the &%*$ is going on???” I asked the first guy I saw.  “The sixty story they were building downtown had the steel fabricated wrong and they shut the job down.  Laid everyone off.” he told me.

Now I was really freaking out!!  I had about $100 and a truck full of belongings.  I headed over to Ft. Worth and asked the Business Agent if they had any work, only to hear the familiar “not right now.”  The Business Agent was a guy named Mike Gravette and he was a really great guy.   (A couple of years later I went in the “hole” and been injured.  As I limped out to my truck from a visit to the union hall Mike asked if I needed anything.  He knew I had a wife and newborn baby at home.  As I turned around to tell him I was ok, I saw he had his billfold out with a handful of cash.  I told him “no thanks” and noted what an honorable guy he was.  He was also instrumental another time in helping me draw hardship pay even though I was in the process of transferring into Local #263 when I got hurt.  During my visits as I recuperated, Mike would give my one-year-old boy “choo choo” rides in a box all around the union hall.  That was a sight!)

Anyway, I guess Mike saw the big ‘ol tears in my eye as I was leaving. 

“Hang on,” he said as he told me he shouldn’t be sending a “boomer” (traveler) out when there wasn’t much work, but to go ahead and report to a building going up in downtown Ft. Worth.  I followed his instructions and the foreman told me to strap on my tools.  I was back at work and getting overtime to boot!  Man did that first paycheck look good!  I stayed with that company for three years of good work and ended up settling down in the Metroplex. 

The moral of this tale is there are some tough times out in the field.  But if you persevere there’s always better times on the horizon.  And there are good people in the trade who are always willing to help.  If the times are looking tough, just keep on trucking and hang in there!