What does this trade look like?

- Brick masons build largely with block or brick. But there are specialties within that trade as well. - We're one of the oldest crafts out there. Goes all the way back to the Egyptian pyramids. Those were masons that built those pyramids. So we have a long, long, history with the bricklayers. - Well masonry traded on its own is very unique. And in its own ways is mostly trowels, the trowel trades. Everything we do is with our hands. So it is overall a very unique trade, and most people, if you ask most people about masons, they don't know anything about it. So, we actually get people that come in that don't know anything about masonry, and we will eventually turn them into masons. - But it's so much more now. There's a lot of different products out there. And brick is something that withstands the test of time. So, we build a building out of brick or other materials that we use, they're going to be there for a lifetime. So, unlike a lot of materials that maybe some of the other crafts use, they're not going to withstand a lifetime. So pride is huge with bricklayers. We have a lot of pride in our craft. When we get done with a day's work and you look back, and you look at the wall you produced, or the floor that you built, of the building that you restored, there's a huge sense of pride with that whole thing. - So, you could become a terrazzo worker and do really beautiful installations on beautiful flooring, beautiful case work. Tile setters will set tile on for flooring or walls. And probably one of the, I think, is one of the most valuable aspects of bricklaying is the restoration work that they do. - So, I mean most of our jobs start seven in the morning. So, that's where you're going to be starting, at seven o'clock in the morning, on the job site. Need to be there 15 minutes early, at least. And you're going to start out probably with a small safety meeting, talking about what the job duties are for the day. Talking with that foreman. And then you're going to go up there and work on the scaffold. You're going to work hard. You're out there in the rain. You're going to lift heavy material. But again, it's part of that self-satisfaction, as you accomplished something, at the end of the day. The apprentices will actually be putting on either flashing, or maybe some exterior sheathing. Or maybe even some waterproofing. And they're working these areas right along with the apprentices, with the journeymen. So those guys are doing, have their role. And then there's the journeymen, that go along and actually lay brick, and do layout. And then usually there'll be a saw up there on the scaffold sometimes. And they'll be making cuts out there. And then the hod carriers that are out there, that are shoveling mud and moving brick. And it can be in the number, the number of brick that we can lay in a day with a big crew is in the thousands. - Safety is hugely important with all of our contractors. We want to make sure that every apprentice, every journey worker out there goes home at the end of the day. So that's hugely important. But on the job site they're going to work hard. That's hard work. Any of the crafts that you get into, is hard work. And that's one great thing about being a union bricklayer is all our benefits go to the same place. So they follow you as a person. So, you could work for ten different companies during a one-year period, and all your benefits are going to stay the same. There's no changing of that. It's all going to the same place. So you're not really stuck. You're not really alone. You're with a crew, which really helps people, I think. It really helps motivate. And sometimes, there's always the downer out there, that want to, "oh, let's go home. It's too wet, it's windy, it's too rainy." But then there's always the guy that's like, "No, let's get through the day." There's always the motivators out there. As I call them, the rabbits. Those are the guys that really get it done. - This isn't a job. This is a career. It's a career that you're going to be doing the next 30, 35 years. And it's going to support you well. - The benefits are great, as far as the benefits that we get. Retirements, pensions, 401(k)s. And then the actual healthcare benefits are phenomenal. - So that's something that you can tell your grandkids about. Tell your parents. Tell your kids. Whoever it is, when you drive by a building. Y'know, there's buildings in downtown Portland that I've started out on the sidewalk, and built to the 14th floor. I laid every brick. They're hand-touched by a person, and I laid every single brick from top to bottom. And that building's going to stay around for possibly hundreds of years. - And for me, it's just super gratifying finishing a building, walking away on that last day, and turning around and looking at that building and going "yeah, I was a part of that." And that's going to be there for a hundred years. We kind of classify them as hundred year buildings now. So that part of it is a pride factor, and very gratifying.