There has been allot of articles and talk lately in the trade magazines about unlicensed contractors doing this and that around the country and how hard it is to compete against it.  It seems to me that there really is no such thing as a un-licensed contractor,  If a person is working in our trade and not licensed they are actually garage mechanics doing side jobs.

If a person is out competing against us and not licensed and insured, sure they are going to under bid us, if they didn't our bid must be wrong.  The big problem is they give our trade a bad name and in turn dig into our benefits and hourly wages.

We as a trade need to police our own ranks,  We shouldn't support them ( Even though they may be co-workebs ),  and our wholesalers shouldn't sell to them.  We need to stress our feelings to our parts houses to not sell to them or the general public.  Many of our suppliers do not sell to the public, these are the parts houses that I make my main purchases from.  All parts houses should treat parts and equipment like they do freon and require a contracting license on file along with certificates of insurance.

The biggest factor is that we need to be the ones to convince our wholesalers to enforce it.  In the long run it would bring up our wages, benefits and work conditions.  This would put our pricing in line with today's economy and stop allot of the mechanical butchering going on in our towns.

This is our careers and we know that not just anybody can do it and do it right.  So why let them bring our wages and benefits down. 

So everyone will know that there is no such thing as a " UN Licensed Contractor".

Eric Nelson

info@hvacwebtech.com

Hvacwebtech.com

Past Editorials
10/12/97 - Smile, If your a Tech