Word: dowd
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...Dowd's Good Buck
...wish to express my great delight in reading about Construction Worker Tom Dowd's "good buck"-$94,000 a year [Sept. 181. Here is a story of a doer, a worker, a builder who can work skillfully with his hands if need be. Never mind the comments like sky-high paychecks, outrageous, grossly inflated, needless expense...
...reasons for Dowd's bonanza -and for an increasing number of other executive-size paychecks collected by construction unionists-are work rules that force employers to shell out huge sums in overtime pay. Annual wages of $20,000 to $40,000 for construction workers are not uncommon, particularly in and around New York City. Dowd, as a kind of union straw boss called a "master mechanic," must be kept on the job at the World Trade Center whenever three or more operating engineers are on duty. Since operating engineers run the center's nighttime machinery, as well...
...Dowd's job often is not particularly taxing, and his private quarters at the site are equipped with a bed and a refrigerator. He is primarily a liaison man between the contractor and the team of operating engineers. By his definition he is a "labor mediator." Paul Richards, head of New York State's building chapter of Associated General Contractors of America, sees Dowd's job in a slightly different way. Says he: "The 'master mechanic' is nothing but a walking steward, and I think if you look at other major projects in New York...
...high paychecks like Dowd's probably pose less of a problem than the aggregate of less outrageous but still grossly inflated wages paid to workers throughout the $110 billion construction industry. Yet Dowd's semi-millionaire status is an example of needless expense that will be passed on in turn to the World Trade Center's owner (the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey), to the buildings' tenants and ultimately to the public. The cost of the Trade Center, originally projected in 1964 at $350 million, has steadily increased; including some work not planned...