Operating Engineers Local 3
Organized Labor
Feb 2009
Wayne Davis, Crane Operator, 30 years I've been in construction, a number of years. The type of work we do out here, everything is a lot bigger. It's heavier and at a slower pace. You have to be real careful about everything. I like it. Everything is so much bigger. I’ve worked on pipelines, on airports, on highways, so many different types of things. But this is the biggest project I've ever worked on. I've told all my friends about it. They say, “Hey Wayne, I was driving over the bridge and I spied this blue-and-white crane. Were you on that?” I started as a crane operator in the Navy Seabees in the early 70s. I got out and joined the Local 3 apprenticeship program in 1978 and have operated cranes ever since. The toughest for me was the math part. I've never been that great at math, but you have to know the weight of things, the weight on the earth, and the weight of the cable strain to calculate how far you can safely take things out. Believe it or not, cranes tip over real easy. I’ve seen it happen. I was working next to another crane one time at an oil refinery, and we were both doing the same thing. He took the first vessel down and he tipped his crane over. It could have happened to me. He shouldn't have done what he was told to do, but you're stuck sometimes. The boss will say, “This is how it is, and if you don’t do it, I’ll get somebody else.” Fortunately, if you feel that something is wrong and don’t feel comfortable doing it, the union business agent will come out and try to work it out. It’s happened to me. It’s good when you have someone backing you up. I've always been on union jobs and have never wanted to be on a non-union one.