My colleagues and I ran a IBEW union shop for about a dozen years up through the dot-com bust. We had over 150 union electricians building out data centers, running fiber optics along railroad tracks, installing low-voltage datacom, etc.
We had a few electricians from the local pool who:
1. Would not show up on time.
2. Did sloppy work.
3. Lied about their work hours on timesheets.
4. Refused to stay updated on building codes, technology changes, fire protection codes.
5. Were rude to customers.
And we would fire them for cause and they would show up in our shop a year later as it was their turn to be rotated through again.
That said, the union gave us flexibility to scale up or down our workforce as needed to meet project deadlines. And provided us with trained, skilled and motivated workers.
I can't get too worked up that there are some bad electricians (and I'm imagining that this is true for any field) who are also union members.
My brother in law's a solo residential electrician who occasionally does a little commercial work. Been doing this for 20+ years. He works hard to keep up with codes, always spends the time on the job to do the work to good standards, etc. His observation is probably 80% of the homes he's come into, whether done by the homeowner or by a previous electrician, the work is shoddy to the point of being dangerous.
I'm honestly not at all surprised if there are bad union electricians, it seems like there are a LOT of bad electricians out there.
Sucks that they're rotating through the union hiring pool, though. I'm sure that was super frustrating.
My colleagues and I ran a IBEW union shop for about a dozen years up through the dot-com bust. We had over 150 union electricians building out data centers, running fiber optics along railroad tracks, installing low-voltage datacom, etc.
We had a few electricians from the local pool who:
1. Would not show up on time. 2. Did sloppy work. 3. Lied about their work hours on timesheets. 4. Refused to stay updated on building codes, technology changes, fire protection codes. 5. Were rude to customers.
And we would fire them for cause and they would show up in our shop a year later as it was their turn to be rotated through again.
That said, the union gave us flexibility to scale up or down our workforce as needed to meet project deadlines. And provided us with trained, skilled and motivated workers.
YMMV.