Heat and Frost Insulators
and Allied Workers Local 16
Organized Labor
Dec 2008
Richard Derr, Quality Control Steward, 28 years I’m a liaison between the employer and the workers. I attend the safety meetings in the morning and meet with the foreman to make sure no issues arise that could stop work. I keep an eye on quality-control and make sure there are no loose ends to keep us from finishing the job. We’re a pretty close lot. I like the hand work. It takes a lot of ingenuity. You can always make things harder, but you learn how to minimize the steps and keep it simple, and keep the work rolling along. There’s a lot of creativity involved in metal fabrication, and when we’re done, a lot of times the finished product looks like a piece of art.