As a crane operator, Lai is one of the comparatively few local workers to be found on the island's construction sites. A shortage of people willing to do this type of work has left most construction firms with no choice but to hire many workers from overseas, mostly from Thailand. But government restrictions require that heavy equipment operators such as Lai be hired from the local work force.
Lai's job keeps him reasonably fit. At five foot six, he has a strong build and a noticeable beer belly. Arriving at Chiu Tai's main office for this interview, he is dressed comfortably in slacks and a polo shirt, a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket. He wears his white sneakers only half on, the backs permanently bent inward under his bare heels. Smoking and chewing betel nuts have left his teeth covered with a reddish-black tartar. His manner is laid-back, although he takes the responsibility of his job seriously.
I came to Taipei to work as a carpenter in a furniture factory after I finished junior high. But the furniture industry wasn't too good, so I changed to construction about ten years ago. I've been operating a crane for four, five years, and a backhoe for eight or nine years. I've worked for this company most of the time. Big companies are more stable, you know.
There are two kinds of crane operators. Those who work just for one company, like myself, and the temporary operators. If the company is short of crane operators for some major job, we call temporary people in to help. They're good—and expensive. They make thirty-five hundred dollars [US$135] a day.
Usually I can make more than seventy thousand [US$2,700] a month. That's good pay in this profession, as far as I know, but we work overtime almost every day, from the very start of a project. We only get maybe one or two days off a month. On days they don't need a crane, we do some maintenance work. We operators have to know the basic assembly of the crane. And we learn all this by ourselves. When we first start, we can only work on the ground, and those who are interested watch how the machines are operated and learn little by little during breaks. Most of the ground work is done now by foreign workers, so I have a lot of experience working with them. They're easy to get along with, especially the ones from Thailand. After a while, most of them can understand some simple Chinese. But we hardly ever associate with them after work.
Operating a crane or a backhoe is not really difficult. It's hard to explain it in words, but the rule that practice makes perfect works here, too. You have to have a license to operate one of these things. The Council of Labor Affairs comes and checks our license from time to time. When you're operating an old crane, experience is important. You have to be able to judge if the things you're going to lift are within safety limits. The new models are designed pretty well now. There are all kinds of alarms to warn us if a thing is too heavy or something. Still, a crane operator has to have a clear view of the ground to avoid an accident. The ground workers also have to be careful. You know the accident the other day in the papers about something falling from a crane and killing somebody who was passing by on a scooter—I think the operator should take more blame. Maybe the operator was too tired, I don't know. In this profession, we have to really concentrate. If we feel tired, we get out and let somebody else take over. Safety is always first.
Right now I'm working at a site near Hsintien [south of Taipei]. We don't stay in one place too long. I belong to the group that's responsible for setting up the foundations for buildings, so we leave for another construction site after we get the job done. Most of the company's construction projects are in Taipei and Taichung [central Taiwan], so we have to work in Taichung often. When we get to a new site, the first thing is to find a place to live. We usually try to rent a place close by. If we can't find one, we build some temporary houses. Then we put the machines together, which takes about half a day. When we leave, we take our cranes with us. We operators are also responsible for taking the cranes apart. Then they're trucked to the next site.
After work, we usually sleep the rest of the day out. Sometimes I visit some friends. You can make a whole bunch of friends in this profession. Just walk onto a construction site, you know, and it's very likely there's someone you know. Sometimes a few of us crane operators get together and chat. Most of the time we talk about work. We discuss some problems we've come across at different construction sites. We talk about other things too, like politics. They're not really in-depth discussions, maybe just about something we saw on the TV news. We also drink some and gamble some. It's not Iike we spend every penny on drinking and gambling. I know there are workers who do, but not me and my co-workers. We just want to kill time and have some fun. But it'd be a lie if I told you construction workers don't drink, don't gamble.
If I get two or three days off, I spend it with my family. I got married very young—six months after I finished my military service. My son is in the fourth grade and my daughter's in first grade. They're not doing too well in school. We send them to cram school, but I don't think it helps. They live in Yunlin with my parents, my wife, and my younger brother. I send most of my salary home, but I don't have time to stay with them there—usually one or two days a month—because my work is really busy here. I'm from a farming family, but there isn't much profit in farming these days. The soil in the area was only good for rice. Rice prices have been the same for seven, eight years, but fertilizer and pesticide have gone up several times. Most young people in the area have left for other jobs. They have to. What an ordinary worker earns beats a farmer who grows ten hectares of rice.
This job is very physically demanding, and the hours are really long. You can feel your health is not as good as before. I don't know how many years I'll be able to work here. I think someday I'll buy a second-hand backhoe and just take some temporary jobs.
—interview by Jim Hwang