a union plumber doesn't have the skills and tools of his trade to work on his own??? some plumber...
Posted on 02/16/2010 7:51:43 PM PST by TornadoAlley3
Tim Barker never thought he'd have to live in his truck. Four months ago, the plumber was in a one-bedroom apartment in California's San Fernando Valley, with a pool and a Jacuzzi. Then, on his birthday in October, he and 199 other plumbers were laid off by their union, Local 761 in Burbank. Now Barker's son sleeps on the sofa of his cousin's one-bedroom Hollywood apartment, and Barker sleeps on the roof of the apartment building - or in his 2003 Ford Ranger pickup. "I'm 47, and I've never lived in my car," says Barker, a husky 220-lb. single father with sandy hair and a rapid-fire voice. In January, as torrential rains pelted the streets of Southern California, father and son were sleeping in the truck in San Pedro, next to the Los Angeles Harbor. "We were able to spend four nights in the Vagabond Motel, but for two nights we slept in the car," says Barker. "It was raining, cold, and the cat was jumping on us. We both got sick."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I lived in my car for 6 weeks....it sucked really bad. But an unplanned and messy divorce will do that. Kept my $8/hr job and kept myself going. It was December and I would have to scrape the inside of the windows and then get out and scrape off the snow and ice from the outside. Would arrive early for work and get cleaned up in the men’s room before starting my shift. Saved some cash and finally rented a room from an elderly couple for a while, then moved into my own apartment and finished college. No regrets.
There is no plumbing work out here and he couldn’t do repair work any way.
Lack of work means there are too many guys looking for too little work.
When construction dies, the repair shops are dying at the same time, and they are laying off repair plumbers, they are not looking for unskilled new employees with no sales and people skills that are clueless on how to find and diagnose repairs in multimillion dollar homes that are 70 years old.
“If you live in a camper, are you really homeless? /sarc”
Not according to FEMA.
I want one of those FEMA campers. The formaldahyde is gone by now, if the windows were open.
That MAY have been true .. Before Obama.
Your lucky .. There will always be crime to keep a cop employed!
You guys don't get it, things don't work that way, he does not have the skills nor the tools nor the money to survive to go into service and repair, if he can even pass the contractor's test, there is no work in California for the well established shops as it is.
When he doesn’t make his camper payments he can go sleep under a bush!!!
I hope there isn’t any government money to help the homeless!!!!
Haven’t we already had about a million illegals return home since this started?
Strange comment. Here in rural Nor Cal, the plumbers are private contractors and are so busy that they pass on small jobs for the most part. Hard to get a plumber to come out and unplug a drain.
a union plumber doesn't have the skills and tools of his trade to work on his own??? some plumber...
Thank you officer Donutwatch.
Between 20% and 40% of the homeless are mentally ill.
And only someone who’s idea of scientific research requres Krispy Kreme would call that a choice.
Don't take these stories to heart, you will be hearing more of them.
These are the kinds of things that the individuals and the economic times have to shake out themselves, if you want to help, keep it local and put a layer between you and the people that need help, work through your church or another church that is involved in that sort of thing.
Things like this shake out and the people always survive, it is all part of the process.
Are you saying that things will get better, or are you saying that things will get worse, under Obama?
I Will Be In That Van,,,,
Down By The River.
I agree. My wife and I help feed homeless people at our church, and most seem to have something really wrong with them mentally, unlike the homeless "Hobos" of my parents generation back in the 1930s. We have even gone out of our way to set some of them up with jobs, they never show up.
They are two very different jobs, two very different skill sets, and service involves many thousands of dollars of tools that construction does not use.
When a new subdivision that is being built has a plumbing mystery that needs to be solved once a house has been completed, then they open the Yellow Pages and call a very expensive service plumber, just like everyone else does.
Any service plumber can do construction, but not every construction plumber can even be trained to succeed at repair work.
From my personal experience, only about 2% are mentally ill, the rest are just enjoying their freedom.
My significant other’s cousin is a member of a pipe fitters union based out of KC and he has been out of work for 6 months plus. He is “afraid” to take non-union work because he fears he will lose his place in line should work become available
He has said that all of his union brothers and him vote in favor of whatever their union calls for but individually, they have a their own personal opinions.
Seems to me that a union is a catch-22. Once you get sucked into its vortex, you become enslaved to it.
Meanwhile the cousin is flipping hamburgers for a buddy on a cash basis......
GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZ!
I was replying to that horrendous statement that you made!
Homelessness is becoming more and more of a reality under Obummer and .. It Ain’t By Choice!
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