atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information UPS and extension cords.

Quite the thief.

I could (almost) see making up the first one. Electrical work during construction is not up to code. By nature it is marginal and hazardous. Using it with a cheap extension cord could easily start a fire.

But a new one every day!

Highway robbery.

Sam

I was told that Local 3 always did it that way. It was common knowledge (except to me, apparently) that one did not bring one's own extension cords to a union-run jobsite, and that a new one would be provided every morning.

We also had to tip, er...bribe...the Teamster who operated the only freight elevator that was operational in the building during construction. He was getting paid to do his job (moving material for the construction company) but to get AT&T-IS equipment frames and cable reels up or down, we had to give him a hundred dollar bill every morning.

I asked the union carpenter to mount a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood for a backboard, and waited a week or so, and then asked a few more times. Being the guy in charge of the job, and with time running out, I went down the block to a small lumber yard and asked them to deliver a sheet of plywood to the jobsite. One of the helpers working for me took delivery and brought it down to the telephone room, and we shot it onto the wall.

The next day, my plywood had been removed from the wall, and cut into exactly 32 one-foot square pieces, and then nailed into a stack 32" high by 1 foot square. There was a note attached that said "If you need f -- king plywood, please pay the carpenter."

Dont want to step on toes but thats why I personally despise most unions.Lots of jobs we did in larger cities we had to hire out of the local hall and then have to stand behind their " technician" and tell them what wire to put where. Working in NYC it was the same deal, bribe the elevator operator the carpenter, etc.One day we had a junction box delivered and I picked up a broom to clean out a spot to lay it down.Of course the switch room was knee deep in trash.Being a management person, I was told there were people there to do that and it was like I raped someones sister.

I worked as a network support engineer for a very large financial institution (which is now defunct) during the Internet boom. Our data center was in NJ, but the financial headquarters was in the city. In 2000 the company began building their new headquarters at 383 Madison Ave. I certainly got an education - unlike any other - from this project. Until the building was completed (all trades) and turned over to our management, we had no rights to anything (even our own equipment.)

We needed to request an electrician to plug any power cords into a receptacle or to power cycle any of our equipment connected to AC power. We dare not even think of touching power cords until the building was turned over to us. And we were told that the elevator operator would break our fingers if we attempted to press any buttons inside the elevator cab.

And to the point we were not allowed to use extension cords on a UPS. The integral power cord on the smaller units was acceptable otherwise they had to be hard wired. Either way a lowly network engineer like myself was unqualified to connect them to utility power. This could only be done by a Local 3 electrician. One day the PC guys installed a new trading floor and accidentally plugged in the power cords. They had to come back the next day, unplug them all, and wait for the electricians to come and plug them all back in again. Believe me it was quite the controversy.