The Winter, The Summer and the Ironworker

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• Created on Friday, 27 January 2012 13:42

A winter in Cincinnati is unpredictable for sure, but it also shall surely be bitterly cold, wet and unbearable at one point or another. For anyone in the building trades this is all too obvious. But, this article (with all due apologies to the rest of the building trades) is for the Structural Ironworker. A friend reminded me a few weeks ago just how tough it is to make a living as a Structural Ironworker.

You see, when the temperature hits the teens in Cincinnati, somewhere there are Ironworkers in this city, outside, above the skyline or at least above any barrier for the wind. Or, they may be working just outside a structure that only a few steps away is somewhat heated for the interior work to be done. Make no mistake the Ironworker is not a seasonal worker! Structures are built whether it’s 100 degrees out or whether it’s 1.
The Iron is often either too hot or too cold to touch. But it goes up and it has for over 100 years.

Every typical month the Structural Ironworker loses time because of rain. Typically one month of pay out of the year is lost to rain days. The main reason for this is safety, and the structural Ironworker understands this. If an Ironworker is lucky, these lost hours are made up throughout the year, obviously on days when it doesn’t rain, days following a rain when you may be up to your knees in mud. It seems that your Structural Ironworker will work 6 and 7 days a week or 10 to 12 hours a day on those days when it is too hot to rain or too cold to snow! At least to us, that’s how it seems.

In the summer, the days are long, it’s hot and the Ironworker is typically outside in the sun! In the winter, the days are short, the wind and air is cold and the Ironworker is out there doing his job again. In both cases, the weather sucks the energy from you. You go home exhausted!

Every trade has its rough side. Some are around hot boilers; others fight dust, chemicals and carcinogens. The building trades workers work for their wages.

The Structural Ironworker will suffer through the heat and the cold, the long days and the 7 day a week schedule. They do this for their families, for brief moments when they can enjoy themselves and for the retirement that is to come.

I hope that you read this on a nice day, but... its January...... its Cincinnati..... so I doubt it.
If you are an Ironworker, you don’t hear it enough….Thank you for the hard work you do!! And, enjoy those days off..