The Piledrivers

Work as a piledriver can best be described as heavy construction involving specific skills in the areas of piledriving, rough carpentry, cutting and welding.

Pilebutts, as the workers are called, generally perform foundation work on large scale construction projects such as piers, wharves, drydocks, breakwaters, underwater pipelines, bridges, highways, skyscrapers and parking lots. They are also called upon to reconstruct, repair, maintain and even demolish existing structures.

Whether constructing, maintaining or demolishing structures, their work is generally very strenuous. Pilebutts perform all heavy labor, skilled and unskilled, incidental to their work. They load and unload their broad gauge lumber, construction forms and piling up to eighty or more feet in length. They manhandle, rig, erect and drive wooden, steel and cement pile. They construct, move, set and scale all the forms and shapes used in the laying of cast-in-place structures. They construct, climb and demolish wooden and metal falsework.

They shore and brace any excavations undertaken in connection with their work. During demolition work, they perform all actual deconstruction with cutting torches, jackhammers and power saws. They also do any rigging and loading work associated with the removal of debris. They perform this work on a variety of maritime and shoreside locations including barges, work floats, tugboats, wharves, piers, pontoons and foundation excavations. Because their work usually occurs during the early stages of construction, the sites are often unprepared, uneven and ungraded. The usual work week is 40 hours long, however, as with all construction work, sixty, seventy and eighty hour weeks are not unheard of.

Piledrivers working on the East Span project belong to Piledrivers Local 34 of Oakland.

Web site to come.