Pilebutts transcript

Pilebutts transcript

- [Worker] Hit it.

- I look at structures and how they were built, because that's what we do. We build them, and we're the first on the job. We're the ones that, without us, the structures don't get built, any of them, and we're always there first. I mean, when you go to a big job, or a high rise or something, you know, you see it going up, but be there six months before it when it's a mud hole. And I mean, and you're walking around, and it's stuff clean up to your waist, you know, and mud dragging chokers around. Yeah, we're the best, there's no doubt. I mean, yeah, trying to be humble about this, but it ain't working for me yet.

- [Narrator] They are Pilebutts. They fix structures to the earth. They drive the piling, they build the piers, the bridges, and the wharves, and to get the work done, they dive into deep, turbulent waters. Freeways, skyscrapers, and airports are secured to the earth by their work. They restore, they demolish, and they build again. Pilebutts belong to a spirited and democratic union, one of the oldest in the West. For over 100 years, members of Pile Drivers Local 34 have worked in all kinds of terrain, from the ocean floor to the great Western deserts. They work in northern California, Nevada, and Utah. On many jobs, they work out of public sight, rarely noticed by the millions of people who depend daily on their skills.

- A guy that drives piles, he knows that he's doing something essential that no one else can do. They can do anything. Their confidence comes from the mastery of their trade.

- I have always thought of pilebutts as the shock troops of the construction trade. When these guys come to a construction site whether it's afloat or ashore, it's completely undeveloped. It's the most difficult stage to work with, and pilebutts come in and they literally pave the way for all the other trades that follow.

- Occasionally, a wise old timer would tell me the story that the men were strong because they could encompass the pile and then cut it off. You know, in those days, the pile drivers would have their ass in the water or ass in the mud, and choking with dust all of the time. It was a hard work, hard work.

- [Narrator] Pile driving is an ancient craft performed by cultures all over the world. In parts of Europe 1,000 years ago, clans gathered in villages on lakes supported by pilings, safe from wild animals and angry neighbors. Life was not easy for early pilebutts. Doing the work was tricky business. Some Pilebutts had a tougher time than others stabbing pile. Years passed, and the Roman pilebutts had learned to build bridges, lots of them, but the river god was not happy about this, and he could cause trouble. So to make a peace offering when a bridge was completed, pilebutts delivered a beautiful maiden to this lusty god.

- Oh, oh. Oh, goodness. Oh me. Oh, oh my.

- [River god] I like it.

- [Narrator] The bridge stood firm, the river flowed, and pilebutts went back to the hammer. Driving pile for bridges, piers, and foundations changed little for thousands of years. It required a drop hammer, a simple rig, and hard physical labor. Pile drivers were recorded in medieval Europe. In Venice, Italy, they belonged to an esteemed guild. These craftsmen were crucial in creating this spectacular city built on pilings above lagoons. Thousands upon thousands of timbers were hammered into the clay, each pile driven by men with a drop hammer. Today, old ways are not forgotten. For the fun of it, pilebutts practice their ancient craft on a hand built drop hammer. Antoine Barada would be proud. He was a pile driving man. Born near Omaha in 1807, Antoine Barada, like Johnny Appleseed, became the subject of tall tales. Strong as an ox, they said he could lift timbers with one hand. He thrived on hard, fast work, but he had a quick temper. One day, while working with a deadbeat crew, Barada's temper flared. He grabbed the drop hammer and threw it across the river. The earth buckled. The hammer had created the breaks of the Missouri. Barada was still pretty angry, so he slammed his fist down on a pile. The pile drove down into the ground so deep it hit water. The whole state of Nebraska would've drowned if Antoine Barada hadn't plugged it by sitting on the bung hole. Over the years, pile drivers' work has been the subject of folklore. Artists have found their work a source of inspiration. Pilebutts have a rich history. On the West Coast, the city of San Francisco reflects the work of generations of pilemen.

- When you first come to San Francisco, the first thing you see is the ferry building. Most tourists see that. The ferry building was built by pile drivers and pilebutts.

- [Narrator] With the discovery of gold in 1848, San Francisco emerged from a sleepy backwater cove to become a bustling seaport. Swamps pushed in on the town. Piers had to be built over the oozing mud. As more people arrived and easy money flowed, construction took off, but it was nearly impossible to find men willing to do heavy work when gold fever was in the air. For a short time, the townsfolk attracted pile drivers and carpenters by offering 20 times the wages these men would've made in New York City. It didn't take long for the word to spread, and pilemen from all parts of the country descended on San Francisco. When men arrived, they found wages had plummeted. Too many workers had drifted into town, and the gold veins had dried up. Now to support their families, tradesmen once again worked long hours in dangerous conditions.

- The work was extremely dangerous. There was no standards, there was no safety. The ropes and housers and cables and chains were used till they broke, and when they broke, it was easier to buy a new piece of equipment than to save a man.

- If you lost a leg, or an arm, or a finger, or anything, or an eyeball, you paid your own doctor bills if you could pay for 'em. If not, you just did the best you could with what was left. If you couldn't do your job, you went home, and the pay stopped. If you had a family, that was just tough. You didn't survive. But many times, if a person got hurt, if he couldn't hold up his end, he was gone. I'm sorry I get sentimental about this, but this is what organized labor's all about.

- [Narrator] In 1877, men working on the piers formed a Pile Driver's Association. It was one of the first unions formed on the West Coast.

- Pilebutts get hurt, and the nature of the work causes us to take care of one another. And it was more fraternal than it was a union like today where you have trust funds and benefits. And they were friends with each other. They saved each other's lives. They took all these things for granted.

- You know, pile drivers are anonymous, but every man's labor, his tombstone, in effect, or his monument is in the piles that he drove. Everything this side of the sea wall was pile driver work.

- [Narrator] Driving pile had changed very little over hundreds of years, but with the invention of the steam engine, pile driving came into the modern era, yet the skill and know-how of the old pilemen was never forgotten.

- A lot of the old timers came out of the woods. They already knew how to do the rigging. They could splice cable. They knew how to splice wood line. They knew how to tie all the different knots that we needed in the maritime industries, so they were good riggers. They were good crane men. They were good barge men. They were men that could get on logs on the water and run across them with their cork boots on and stuff. We had to do that in the old days, 'cause we drove wooden piling.

- [Narrator] Driver Number Three sits near the Embarcadero in San Francisco. This handcrafted rig with its steam driven hammer is one of the last of its kind.

- This rig represents old fashioned pile driving. Very few men still know how to work on a rig. There's a monkey man or loftsman who climbs way up high to pull a pile into place. You have spool men on the equipment.

- [Worker] That's good.

- [Worker] You like it? Let her go.

- [Narrator] This old rig, like countless others, drove the pilings for the piers, the wharves, the docks, and the bridges that built the city of San Francisco. The Pile Drivers' Union remains small and independent. To gain strength in bargaining, pile drivers joined with the iron workers. Together, they formed a new independent union. But pile drivers wanted autonomy, and this partnership had a short life. In 1920, they found a new home with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. In the years that followed, violent struggle erupted on the streets of San Francisco as workers struck for better conditions. In the strike of 1934, longshoremen and seamen shut down all shipping on the West Coast. Jack Wagner, along with other pilebutts, supported the strikers, and were manning picket lines when police opened fire. Two longshoremen were killed. The workers of San Francisco responded with a general strike. After weeks of turbulence, the longshoremen won their demands. In this era of labor strife, Jack Wagner took the helm of the Pile Driver's Union. A staunch rank and file unionist, Wagner had been educated by streetwise radicals. In 1937, Wagner wrested an agreement from the Carpenters International. Local 34 would have its autonomy.

- He saved face for us, and he forced the international to recognize we have one man, one vote. He had a personality about him that was, he would stand up to anybody. He'd fight a buzz saw if he had to for the union.

- [Narrator] San Francisco grew. By the mid 1930s, construction projects tested the skills of a generation of craftsmen. Two bridges were commissioned over San Francisco Bay, both spectacular in design and construction.

- They were remarkable people in those days. They drove the cofferdams and the timber piles for the East Bay foundations. They sometimes drove 100 piles a day, which is remarkable, but imagine 100 piles a day. Today, of course, our piles are bigger and deeper, but we think we're good when we drive eight piles a day.

- [Narrator] The building of the Golden Gate and the Oakland Bay Bridge took the lives of 35 workers. The structures stand today as monuments to the skill and courage of the workers who built them, from those who drove the pile to the men who stacked the steel.

- Well, you know, there's a lot of rivalry, you know, between it. I mean, everybody thinks their gang's the best. We do it all, big, short, and tall. I mean, that is a fact. I mean, you know, iron workers talk about building bridges and all that. I'll guarantee you, there wouldn't be a bridge one in this Bay Area over water if there weren't pile drivers there.

- [Radio Voice] We'll help you out on 13.

- [Worker] Get up on it.

- Look me in the eye and see that I love this. I love this shit. I really do. It's hard, dirty, shitty work, and you just, you gotta love it. You gotta love doing it, and I mean, some of these kids, you know, come in here and look at that and go, "Oh my God, you know, you're kidding me. You want me to do what?" I'm liking that. I'm liking that. Okay, girls. Coming up, coming up, watch out. That's it. There isn't a time or a minute that goes by when you're standing on a deck of a barge, I mean, the thing's alive, and you better know where you're at and where you're going if something turns to shit.

- When you're an underwater pilebutt, we do just about everything they do on top, and your suit is just a vehicle to get to and from the work. You try to do it the shortest and the best way, because that's all you have to sell is your bottom time. What you have to do on a big production job, you have to put out like 120%. See, a diver's only got so much time down there, and he has to get it done, and usually if they don't get it done, they're down the road. I mean, they'll get somebody that can.

- He's got about one foot of visibility, so he can see what's right here, what's right in front of his face. Everything's done by feel.

- [Voice on Radio] Yeah, flying at a 45 degree angle, and the right below, it's fine.

- [Narrator] A diver's work is crucial in the bridge's retrofit. He operates in hazardous conditions, moving in underwater darkness, fastening structures, inspecting piles and foundations. He's not out of danger when he returns to the surface. A decompression chamber sits at the work site. If the diver ascends too quickly, he may experience decompression sickness, causing severe pain in his joints, muscles, and bones.

- Yeah, that's the essence of the whole operation is the people. I mean, all I am is the orchestrator, you know? I mean, it's like a big circus, and I'm standing out in the middle of three rings, you know, going, you know, dah-dah-dah-dah, and I mean, everybody else is out there, you know, executing things and making it happen. They don't get any better than this.

- Being a pile driver, man, you're a more hardworking stiff. I don't think I was ever on a pile driving job that was easy. It's all hard work, very hard work. You're going full bore all day long.

- [Narrator] It takes many years to learn the skills required of a pile driver. After a four year apprenticeship, new pilebutts continue to learn from seasoned journeymen on the job. Often, these young pile drivers must confront their own insecurities to get the job done.

- So I wasn't real fond of heights to start off with. I remember first time I had to grease the hammer, it was like only 20 feet off the ground, but I had a hard time letting go. I had my lanyard on there, they're hollering at me, "Let go with your hand," and I was like this hanging on, and I'd be like this. I had a hard time, but you get over it. I love being in here now.

- A couple of things that we deal with day in and day out are heights, especially if you do bridge work. We pick up large four by fours and walk H-beams, or I-beams, whatever you want to call 'em. Probably for me, the most frightening thing was to take those first few steps early in the morning, and on a new job, carry the four by fours in place until we had enough of a deck established that we could throw some plywood down and no longer just walk the beams. I had this little chant in my head that I would go through to help calm myself down, because most people are afraid of heights, and I would meditate with this chant while I was doing my work, and I'd slap my leg to work up the nerve to take the first couple of steps so that my legs weren't shaking as I stepped forward. And then after I'd done that a few times, my heart rate would go down, and my comfort level would be greater, and I could get out and do what I need to do, and the fear was much less.

- When I'm out here, there's risk, and you have to take 'em. And of course, you know, in the back of your mind, you're saying, "Okay, well, you know, I gotta be careful, you know," but in actuality, some things have to be done, and there are risks involved. So I try to be cautious, but at some point, sometimes I can't. Hey, if it can be done, I think I can do it.

- [Narrator] Pile driving is dangerous work. Accidents happen, and they are often deadly. On any given day, a broken chain or a falling object can maim or kill a worker who happens to be standing in the wrong place.

- Everybody thinks about injury and death, you know? It's right there in front of you. When you have 120 tons falling outta the sky, you know, everybody learns to scatter.

- Two, three times a year, those of us who have been in the trade for a while know someone's been killed that year.

- The jobs took their toll. I have broken bones and I've been hit on the head with the hooks, and I've been knocked in the bay, and I've had hernias, and broken fingers, and broken feet.

- I've had my back broken three places, just about the belt line, and my sciatic nerves are gone, and my legs, I mean, they're very bad. My feet burn real bad sometimes. At some point, it flares up. I almost lost this arm over in Kuwait, 200 some stitches when the in haul line broke. My girl can still dance, though.

- Well, if I thought about getting hurt or danger, I actually wouldn't probably get out of bed. It's my job, I like it. It's adventure for me. I don't think about really coming out here getting hurt, but I know there's a lot of danger around.

- If my partner's down there in the water diving, and I'm up here as a standby diver, and he gets in trouble, I'm going down there and get him. And if he don't come back, by God, I'm not coming back either, because I'm not gonna come back here and tell everybody, by God, how he's down there and I'm here alive. I'm gonna die with a son of a bitch, or I'm gonna bring him back on the deck.

- It's the people, it's the men, you know, and the women that are part of this craft. I mean, even the old guys that retire, that's the thing they miss out of it. They don't miss hooking chokers up and swinging shit around. They miss the people that they stood next to, you know, doing that for all these years

- [Narrator] These men and women belong to a union that ensures a decent livelihood. It has fought for 125 years for health, welfare, and safety regulations on the job. But Local 34 provides more than material benefits. It brings together working people who care for one another in deeply felt ways.

- The union to me is like a family, and it's been good to me.

- I'm real passionate about this union, and it's the best thing really that's ever happened to me. Otherwise, I'd still be back in Petaluma milking cows and throwing hay bales, you know? I mean, you know, who'd have thought?

- When your kid gets hurt and is in the hospital, the union can put out a call, and you can have a meal delivered every day. That happened to me. That happened to me when my daughter had her surgeries, and it was union sisters and brothers that night after night after night, brought a meal to our house.

- I was hurt on Pier 39, and I went in the water, and the dock collapsed on me, and when the dock collapsed on me, when I came to the surface, I saw the men dive in the water after me. And they didn't know what debris was in the water, what they could have fallen on. They just threw themselves in the water and saved me.

- I own a home, I have a family. I've raised kids, they went to college. These guys helped me establish myself, make a success as much as I could in life.

- [Narrator] Pilebutts bring skills to the job that take a lifetime to master. Protective of one another, they work under the hammer with confidence and pride. Although their jobs are hazardous and uncertain, they are shielded by their humor, their know-how, and a shared fearlessness. They are certain, no matter what the odds, if a job can be done, pilebutts will do it.

- [Worker] Ready?

- [Worker] I like it.