job description

I am a journeyman plumber and pipe fitter. I have been with my current company for about two and a half years. I am part of the Pluming and Pipe Fitters Union, District Counsel 16.

A journeyman is someone who is no longer an apprentice, but who is not the foreman (who runs the job).

I install piping and underground piping for heating and air-conditioning. We do some plumbing as well, but we mostly do mechanical work.

Right now, I am watching the backhoe (a big tractor with an arm that reaches out and digs) so that we do not hit anything underground. Most of the time, I am hooking up coils for air-conditioning. This involves soldering, cutting pipe, and fitting it together.

Most of the problems have to be solved on the fly. The last one was probably when we were digging at the bottom of a ditch, trying to clear it. I was watching the backhoe. I wanted the guy to drag the bucket forward but instead he rolled the bucket. The backhoe hit a Transite (which is a fireproof composite material) waterline and punched a hole in it. I was only about half a foot away, so I screamed and flung my arms in front of myself, thinking that I was about to get drenched. Fortunately, the water was already turned off. All we had to do was repair the pipe and fill the ditch back in. We do this by putting on a special clamp that goes around the outside of the pipe and seals it. The clamp has rubber inside so that when it clamps over the pipe, it seals the hole off. It is kind of like putting a Band-Aid on. The clamp stays on. It is make out of stainless steel so that it will not corrode.

Actually, I work with a little of each. Right now, we are doing a lot of work on schools, colleges, and things like that. I am working at a college in Woodland Hills. We are also doing work at a college in Los Angeles. We are doing retrofits for the air-conditioning. The major contractor we are working for is a major oil corporation. Basically, we work all over Southern California, from Temecula to Woodland Hills, to Los Angeles Harbor to Victor Valley.

Yes. We wear work boots, long pants, a tucked in shirt, an orange safety vest, eye protection, and hard hats. This fits OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standard requirements.

It is very good. The atmosphere is casual; we have a team effort. The guys I am working with now are a lot of fun. We do a lot of joking around.

Oh yeah, we work as a team. Most of the time working with a team is very good. Sometimes, you are working with somebody you do not particularly care to be working with, but this is rare. At least, with this company that is uncommon. You just do your job and hope that you get moved or he gets moved.

I worked for a plumbing contractor, doing only plumbing work then. I worked with them for 9 years. The owner was retiring and was shutting the company down.

education & career path

I went to Orange Coast College (OCC) and took some construction courses, but I was not planning on being a plumber or anything similar. My dad was a plumber. He said that they were taking apprentices locally. I signed up, passed the test, went through five years of apprenticeship school, and became a plumber. The test was like an entrance exam to make sure you are qualified and to weed out the dumb ones. (Laughs)

Yes, you start working right away but you are going to school two nights a week. You are learning both in the field and at school.

Sometimes. Plumbing is an acquired skill. This is especially true with things like soldering pipes; now I can do it in your sleep, but back then I had a lot of leaks. It is like anything else, because you have skills that you need to learn. I am still learning some things now that I am doing pipe fitting, because it is different, too.

Right out of high school, I worked at a go-cart track. Then while I was in college, I worked at Disneyland sweeping trash and cleaning up tables. Around the time I got out of college was when I got into the apprenticeship program. I went to work for Service Plumbing Company, which was a union housing contractor. They went out of business, so I went to work for Plumbing Contractors. Then they went non-union, so I went to work for about nine different small contractors. I worked with each one for just a short period of time through the union. Then I was hired with a big contractor. With them, I worked for a year and a half on things like the Anaheim Pond, for example. About the time that was finishing up, I got a call from another company that I had done some work for in the past. I had only done one job with them, and then they had laid me off because they did not have any work down here. They called me back later because they liked my work and they offered me a job. I worked for him for 9 years before the owner retired and I came to work here.

Originally, I did not think that I wanted to go into plumbing. One day, my dad called and told me that they were taking apprentices and asked if I was interested. I had gone with him on various plumbing jobs over the years, and I thought, "Well, that wouldn't be bad." I gave it a try. Before that, I really did not know what I wanted to go into. I thought for a while that I wanted to be an architect. Then I realized that I did not want to sit in an office all day.

Knowing what I know now, I probably would not go into plumbing. It is a very physically demanding job. Now that I am 56 years old, I am thinking, "Gee, a job in an office would not be so bad." Or at least one of the other trades where they do not work so hard, like electrician or electronics. I always had a flair for electronics, but I never pursued a career in it.

There is quite a bit of danger involved in the job. We work with large pipe and materials that could fall and hit us. For example, right now we are digging ditches that are four feet across and five or eight feet deep. If you slip and fall in, you are going to get hurt. You have to keep your wits about you and not act stupid.

my day

I get up at 4:20 a.m. I drive to work, where we start at 6:00 a.m. On this particular job, we get our tools out and drive to where we are digging. We get set up and get the backhoe in there, and we begin working. As the ditch is dug, we get to start putting the pipe in and assembling the pipeline. That is what we do until 2:30 p.m.

No, we do not operate the machinery. We hire someone to come with the backhoe. We do have to keep an eye on him, though, and check where he is digging. We tell him where to dig and how deep to dig.

So do you normally work from 6 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. on all jobs or just this particular job?
A: Yes. Pretty much all the jobs are eight-hour shifts, unless there is a big rush. Over Christmas, we were working ten-hour days for six or seven days a week. We had a pipeline that we had to run through the important part of a college campus. We had to dig the ditch, install the pipes, test the pipes, and fill the ditch before school started again on January 2.

Tired. It is satisfying when you get a lot done. You feel like you have actually done something, because you are building something instead of just pushing papers around.

Oh yeah, it has variety. It seems like the day changes a lot, depending on what individual job we get moved to. For example, right now, we are putting in fountains down at the Court of Los Angeles. In other places, we are doing coils for the air-conditioning. In the job with the colleges, we are doing underground piping. With the school, there are a million little pipes that we have to watch out for. It gives you lot of variety so that you are not doing the same job every single day. Every job has some unique little thing that is different from the last one.

Probably about 1:00 p.m., when I know that I only have about an hour left to go. It is also enjoyable when you come up with a solution to a problem and everybody goes, "Wow! That is a good idea."

salary & lifestyle

Union scale for a journeyman plumber is about $34.50 per hour.

I think California is higher than some, but lower than others. For example, I know that in San Francisco, they make more than we do in Southern California. It has to do with how their union negotiated their contract with the contractors in the area.

I get a lot of phone calls from friends that need help. It is a good feeling that I can fix things for them when they are struggling.

We take vacation when we want to. Part of our pay goes into vacation and holiday pay. We get a percentage of it at Christmas, and the remainder in March. You can take a vacation whenever you want using that money. Or at least, that is the idea behind it.

The last vacation I went on was to England with my family. We went to visit some friends in Manchester, England. We stayed for about three weeks. That was about a year and a half ago.

Hopefully around 63.

Just my time. I have probably also sacrificed wear and tear on my body.

Fairly stable. There have been periods over the years when construction is slow, but for the most part it is pretty stable.

Yeah, because you get home earlier.

pros, cons & trends

The best parts are figuring out problems and taking care of them; it gives you a good feeling of accomplishment. Probably the worst parts are when something breaks or someone gets hurt. That just ruins your whole day.

The union guarantees your wages. If the company you work for closes down or they lay you off because they do not have any work, it gives you a place to go sign up. The union dispatches you to another contractor so that you have a job. However, it does mean that you have to pay union dues. It is worth being in the union, though. I know that nonunion workers do not make nearly what we make, because if you are nonunion, you have to negotiate your own rate with the contractor. A lot of guys do not do very well without the union.

Oh, yes. We have a group through our church right now called Carpenters for Christ. It is for elderly members of the church, women whose husbands are serving in Iraq, or widows who need things fixed around the house. I have gone out on a few calls and fixed things. We do not charge anything for the services; we just ask them to pay for the materials that we use. It is a nice feeling, and you meet some good people.

The material has gotten lighter and lighter over the years. We used to use heavy steel pipes, but now it is plastic, which is much easier to use and install. The drainpipes in houses and buildings all used to be from cast iron. Now, you have bands that you just slip on, tighten up, and you are done. The old pipes used to have a bell, and the pipe would fit in. You would have to pack this coil material called oakum. You would have to pour the hot molten lead in there then pound the lead in. You had to do that every single joint. I do not know how the old-timers did it. This was probably up until about the mid-1960s. Then, they started going over to what they call node hub cast iron. Housing has all changed to plastic now that you can just glue together. Commercial buildings still use cast iron because it does not burn like plastic.

I started off in housing for about 16 years, but commercial is a little bit more technical and more challenging. I enjoy the challenge, because there is nothing worse than being at work and being bored.

It has not affected the plumbing or pipefitting industry too much. I have noticed that a lot of the other trades are being taken over by the Hispanic population, who are not necessarily illegal. But it is getting harder and harder to hear English on the job, especially in housing. Housing is almost 99.9% nonunion now. I do not even know if there are any union housing contractors anymore. I switched over to commercial, so it has not affected us directly. A lot of commercial work is still union because, unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, the people who work just in housing do not have the skills that we have to be able to handle all that commercial plumbing entails.

advice

You have to like what you are doing, want to work with your hands, and not mind getting dirty.

Intelligence and good mechanical abilities are required to become a plumber. Also, the ability to work with your hands, handling both power tools and hand tools, is essential. You have to be able to read blueprints.

Once you get through an apprenticeship program, they have a little ceremony and release you as a journeyman plumber. Usually a "licensed plumber" is referring to someone who has a contractor's license. I do not have a contractor's license, but I am a certified plumber though the union. In the union, they have a P.I.P.E (Piping Industry Progress and Education) Certification Test that you have to pass.

It tests the code, meaning plumbing codes, and some of the business laws. You have to be able to read blueprints and interpret them. It is all a written test. It was very difficult. There are some people who probably should not be a plumber who do not pass it. However, I would say that most people pass the test eventually. Some people just have to take it more than one time. Personally, I did not find the test all that difficult, but I studied for it. It is a one-day test that takes about three hours and had between 100-150 questions when I took it.

A little bit of both. I had some and learned some.

I wish I knew then what I knew now. I probably would have gone over to pipefitting sooner. It is a little more stable than plumbing, which has ups and downs. Housing and TI (tenant improvement) work (like when there are small stores that are empty, and then set up for businesses) tends to be available when the economy is good, but when the economy is bad you are not working. In the commercial and pipefitting work that I am doing now, when the economy goes down, housing and TI work is unavailable, but that is when all the colleges and government work increases. Your work is steadier in pipefitting. I would tell myself to get into the commercial end of the industry.

Being conscientious and taking pride in my work has most contributed to my success.

I would tell them to go down to their local union. They can talk with the business agents to see if they are taking apprentices or if they have any advice, because they are always willing to talk. (Laughs) For a while, they had a really tough time getting apprentices; it did not seem that people wanted to get into the industry.