Pat Barcas/staff photographer
After 20 years working as a bricklayer and another 20 more as a business agent, Pete Culver has retired. One thing he’d like more of is members to get politically involved.
By Pat Barcas
Staff writer
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Email Pat Barcas at pat@foxvalleylabornews.com
ST. CHARLES — For a busy guy like Pete Culver, slowing down during retirement may come as a bit of an adjustment. His official retirement party from the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers District Council 1 fell in late May this year.
“It was sort of like attending your own funeral,” he joked. “Except you can talk to people. You never think of yourself stopping work, then the time comes. You don’t know if you’re ready for this or not.”
Culver became a bricklayer right out of high school, spent about 20 years doing it, then another 20 as a business agent for the union. His take on bricklaying — it’s a tough job with everything against you, from the weather to the fickle equipment. But the people are great.
“The old adage, it takes 40 minutes to get to work, but six hours to get home, that might be a little true,” he laughed.
He started out with tough work — building lots of custom homes with fancy fireplaces — and ended up more on the political side of labor, striving for equal workers’ rights and free speech for the unions.
“I got this job during a lame duck Republican session in Illinois. They were fast tracking legislation upon their exit that was eroding workers’ rights,” he said. “I was amazed how quickly they take away these acts that protected workers. That was very harmful. It woke me up to how fast things can change.”
Culver recounted erecting Scabby the Rat in the mid 1990s, and having the police order that it be taken down, citing a sign ordinance, even though real estate signs were standing 10 feet away.
“The rat got arrested. It was a $500 fine and they confiscated him. I said I’ll go to court and we’ll defend it. They threw it out,” he said.
Culver and friends petitioned the State’s Attorney Generals office to define what free speech laws they were not abiding by.
“Not a year later, their office put out a guideline of what unions could and couldn’t do in regards to work disagreements and putting up Scabby. Suddenly you had a document in your hand that said you could put the rat up. You were protected. I think we did that,” he said. “A lot has changed in the last 20 years. People think we’re just out there picketing, but we’re protecting workers. I’d hate to see what happens if we’re gone.”
He said young bricklayers should absolutely pay more attention to the political side of things, because it affects them, whether they know it or not.
“I never paid much attention to politics in my younger years. You don’t think it has much to do with your job, but it does,” he said. “It’s hard to tell that to younger guys who are in the position I was in.”
In retirement, Culver said he’s going to travel more with his wife, and maybe take it easy, although he was fielding calls for political help shortly after retirement.
“It’s funny, as a bricklayer, you go to the mall with your wife, she’s looking in the stores, I’m looking at the bricks and how they’re done. I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing that.”