I work in residential construction as an operating engineer. I'm an apprentice on the tlb/backhoe and getting paid about 50% less than what the laborers are getting paid.
I'm subcontracted to the builder from a landscaping company, and my boss says to do what they tell me to do but stay in the machine. Sometimes I will get out (like if I drop something or the machine needs maintenance) but other than that I never get out. Some of the other operators do but they choose to do so and they don't have to.
I don't have forks on my machine but was expected to stack a bunch of stairs in a hard to reach area. The steps kind of fell over and my foreman informed me that I have to get out of my machine to stack them properly if they topple over.
I told him if he wants to pay the difference between what my boss pays me and what he makes I would gladly get out. He thought I was joking but I eventually said “I don't get paid enough to get out of my machine and do labor work, I'm not a labourer”. I'm in The operators Union not the laborers union, I'm not doing any labor work as per my contract.
It felt good.