For Iron Workers, Lots of Waiting but Few Jobs

New York, NY —

New York City’s official unemployment rate has reached 10.3 percent, the highest since 1993. Some experts believe the real rate is much higher. WNYC will be bringing you stories about some of the people behind those numbers. Today, reporter Matthew Schuerman rides along with union ironworkers in their daily search for work.

REPORTER: At 5:45am, Pete Herman is waiting on the curb on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. Two friends of his drive up in a car.

They’re all unemployed ironworkers, and they’re headed to their union hall. The guy driving, Steve Stacy, and his 23-year-old son, Ronwanori, are Mohawk Indians. Mohawks have been ironworkers in New York City since at least the Great Depression. But Steve and Ronwanori have been out of work since July. Pete Herman hasn’t worked since February.

HERMAN: When this tanked, this tanked.

REPORTER: Local 361’s headquarters is in Ozone Park, Queens, about 40 minutes away. Steve Stacy, who’s driving, says you never know where the day’s work might take you.

STACY: We could be in Queens. We could be in Long Island. We could be in Brooklyn.

REPORTER: When they arrive, it’s still dark outside. The union hall is tucked away in a neighborhood of white, low-slung houses. Two dozen unemployed union members are standing around waiting for the hall to open.

A few minutes later, at 6:30am, the door swings open and the men file in to a long, narrow room.

They stand in line to sign a ledger at the front of the room.

There’s a receptionist’s window, but it’s closed and covered up. To the left is a door to an office. It’s closed also.

HERMAN: You have to sign up your information like name, book number.

REPORTER: Herman says most of the jobs come in early. Contractors get to their work sites and figure out where they are shy.

HERMAN: The steward might call up and say, hey, I need two guys to bolt up or something.

REPORTER: The office staff checks what the contractor needs against the ledger and determines which member gets the job, based on who’s got the right skills, license and, especially these days, work ethic.

Alex has been an ironworker for about seven years.

ALEX: If there’s work we’ll get called in and they’ll send us out to the job. If there’s no work we’ll wait till a certain time and then go home.

Jimmy Romanczyk’s been coming in from Suffolk County on Long Island three days a week for the past five months.

ROMANCZYK: It costs me $100, or $120 dollars to get in here a week just in the gas.

REPORTER: Union members call this routine of coming to the union hall to look for work “shaping up.” When times are good, workers only have to shape up every few weeks, or months, or years even, when the project they’re working on doesn’t need them any more. But these days, it’s rare to hear a voice from the back room over the loudspeaker. That means someone’s got a job.

Alex has brought along a book on Irish history to read. In one corner, there’s a card table with a chess board all set up. But most guys just talk about better times and places.

By 8:30am, more than 80 iron workers have signed up looking for work. But just two of them have gotten called for jobs.

So Herman and his two friends call it a day.

Instead of rigging a bridge in Queens, Long Island or Brooklyn like they imagined they might, they end up at a diner in Bay Ridge.

Herman’s been an iron worker for 20 years. More than most careers, construction work is cyclical, and these guys know it.

HERMAN: You just have to have it in mind that when the boom’s good it’s not going to be long before it’s gotta—you know the wheel has to go down.

REPORTER: Financially, Herman’s doing okay. He’s collecting unemployment insurance, and his wife is still working as a nurse.

HERMAN: Actually, my life is full because I have two kids and I’m very involved in the schools.

REPORTER: For now, he’s happy to have a long vacation.

HERMAN: It always bounces back, always.

REPORTER: The next day, Herman shapes up again. Not one person is called up for a job. He and his friends take the rest of the week off.