Plasterers Local 66
Organized Labor
June 2009
Paul Gutierrez, 24 years, Supervisor I like the gratification of working hard and being proud of the results. I wouldn’t want to do a wall that I was ashamed of. My favorite project was Club Quarters on Kearney Street. That job involved a 12-story building with multi-finishes, multi-textures, ULTRA-Tex brick, and limestone. I like limestone because you can make anything out of it. The most challenging material for me is Sculptural Armourcoat. On one job I had to make it look like a piece of marble. The key to being a supervisor is to keep up with the work ahead of you. The general contractors are trying to save time. They want to shave a little time off here, a little time off there. They’ll go, “Hurry up, hurry up,” and tear down the scaffold. And then after the scaffold is down, they’ll complain about how the job looks. You’ve got to do your homework. My game is to have a procedure and be adamant with the contractors. “You stick with my procedure, and we can go boom, boom, boom and we’re done.” On the other hand, I’ve got to hammer my guys so everyone is on the same page. Everyone has their own style, and each trowel leaves a certain signature. I can look at a wall and tell who worked on it. It is all technique and style. We get guys over-trained, under-trained, some like to work slow and careful, others are hustlers. I tell them that on my job, we all do it my way. That way, when we’re done, it will all have the same uniform finish. It’s hard work. You find out you have muscles you never thought you had. Shoulders and elbows and knees are the main culprits, and the necks somewhat. Those are what break down in our industry.