A worker was on our office floor one day trying to maneuver a 4x8 foot display board around a corner, and I could see he was having a very difficult time, so I got up out of my desk and said, :hear let me help you and lifted a corner and swung the tail end around for him. All of a sudden, I her “Hey! What the hell do you think you are doing?” – turning around I see a Shop Steward red-faced and firing more angry words at me for daring to lay my non-union hands on a job they do. If he would have seen me spray painting his car, I don’t think he would have been any more angry. It was a real eye-opener.
Par for the course.
I used to get that same crap if I ever touched any machinery or materials when I was a supervisor in a union shop 30 years ago. Solution? If something had to get done, I’d just do it when nobody was looking. (It usually involved heavy lifting and all those rough, tough union types would invariably start whining about “bad backs”)
They used to love to “grieve” me but that was hard to do with no witnesses.