construction equipment suppliers and subcontractors, job by job and beer by beer, over the past seven years since I’d started the firm. The cranes and earth-moving equipment, I had available. The labor, not so much. Even in the months since we’d begun work, electricians and plumbers and ironworkers and carpenters had got busier, and now, the labor shortage was coming bang up against my milestone dates with a relentlessness I couldn’t deny. Which was why I’d asked for this meeting.
I told Luke, and the others, “I’m not planning to miss either deadline, but it’s going to be tight at best. I’ve got some ideas for that. I’ve got feelers out in the North Island, around Auckland and Hamilton especially, the trade schools and the NZBTU.” The New Zealand Building Trades Union, that was. “Once I find a new foreman, I’ll be going up there myself, see what I can do in person to get some new boys on board fast.”
“Reach out especially to the Maori boys, you think?” Drew asked. “The Islanders? Persuade them of the wonders of Dunedin? You’d be the man to do it.”
“Not easy,” Hayden said. “What’s Dunedin’s Maori and Islander population? Not the most congenial environment, they may be thinking. Pretty Pakeha down here after Auckland. I can’t imagine the Chinese New Year parade is much to write home about, for example.”
“Yeh,” I said. There was my kedgeree arriving, and I took a quick bite of spicy rice to fortify myself. “That’s been it, when I make a call up there. That’s what I hear. Still working out how to get around that. Though I don’t only want the brown boys, of course. I’ll take anyone who’s willing and able.”
“Cheaper housing,” Kane said thoughtfully. “They can buy down here, maybe, with a bit of overtime and if the missus is earning as well. Be hard pressed to do that in Auckland. That matters. Good schools, too. Good for the family’s future. Put it like that, maybe.”
“And house prices are still rising like mad down here,” Hayden said. “Unlike Auckland, where everybody’s thrown up their hands and given up. Good investment, you’d think, especially if you’re a manly man who can get a place that needs work and DIY his way to habitability. Together with his manly mates, of course. Which wouldn’t be me, but then, I’m not a Samoan tradie. They always look so big and capable, stubbies and work boots and all.”
“Careful,” Luke said, and I had to smile despite the migraine. This was helpful. The housing-price idea hadn’t occurred to me, nor the schools. Not a family man, that was why.
“I can do something with that,” I said. “Cheers.”
“Job security as well,” Drew put in. “Construction trends. Though you’ll have thought of that. No earthquakes, either. If Christchurch is luring them, Dunedin should be able to do better.”
“I resent that,” Kane said. “The earthquakes make you tougher, that’s all. How much have the Crusaders been winning? Who won the semifinal, for that matter?”
“We’ll see next time,” Drew said, the ghost of a smile on his face. “Could be we’ll surprise you. And that’s it?” he asked me. “Cash reserves look OK. Anything else? Any other bad news?”
“Cash reserves look too good, actually,” Hayden said. “Meaning, I’m guessing, that you’re not paying out as much as you’d planned in wages.”
I’d have asked him how he knew, if he was an expert on construction-firm balance sheets, but Luke put in, quietly as always, “He’s been swotting, nights, since I came in as an investor.”
“Moonlighting,” Hayden agreed. “Never mind, I’m used to learning boring things. My whole life is learning boring things. Corporate law, eh.”
I said, “I’ve been seriously upping the overtime these past weeks, which won’t help the bottom line any, fair warning, but we need to hit those milestones. Investment in the future.” The two contracts with the University of Otago were my biggest so far by a long chalk, and I needed to nail them. In the building business, reputation is everything. I added, “I need that foreman, though, to oversee the music studios himself. It’s taking all my time just now, and that’s not working.”
“Bring up somebody from within,” Drew said.
“Yeh,” I said. “Working on that. Never mind, I’ll get there. I thought I’d better tell you, though. No surprises, eh. And get your ideas, which are helpful, so cheers for that.”
“You could do a sort of …” Hayden said.
“A sort of what?” I prompted.
Hayden looked around. “I’m the new boy, I realize.