This 1993 cover by editor Richard Korman delved into the deteriorating conditions facing hard hats during the construction recession, then in its third year.
Union and non-union traveling workers alike had seen the purchasing power of their wages erode as raises became scarce and rollbacks more frequent.
Instead of traveling to increase their total compensation on higher paying projects, artisans were traveling greater distances just to find work.
Korman interviewed an HR director at a non-union electrical contractor who described workers so desperate they would show up unannounced, with their vital belongings in their car and force an interview by sitting in his company lobby for hours.
Although hard statistics on workers were not available, Korman was told that the number was probably around 100,000, including millwrights, electricians, welders and pipe fitters needed to complete paper mills, power plants and oil refineries.
A sidebar article profiled 40-year-old millwright Cliff Billings, who moved his family a half-dozen times south before finally getting an assignment on Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean for a chemical weapons cleanup project.
Some of the workers Korman interviewed attributed their divorces to long separations stemming from their far-flung assignments, which sometimes involved six- and seven-day work weeks with mandatory overtime.
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