Member Profile: Eric Mussynski

Eric M

Meet our member, Eric Mussynski. Eric is a HVAC/R Service Technician with UA Local Union 393, and has been a member for 18 years.

“I had a full time job at FedEx but I knew there had to be something else I could do to better provide for my family. I never went to college, and I knew it wasn’t right for me. A co-worker left FedEx for the trades and enlightened me that that’s what I needed to get into. After looking into it, I realized being in the union and working in the trades were my best chance to provide the type of lifestyle I wanted for my family.

“I started out as a HVAC service technician and did that for about eight years. I would handle service calls, perform maintenance and repair to HVAC equipment. For the past 10 years I’ve been a HVAC controls technician. My job entails installing, programming and commissioning of HVAC systems on commercial buildings. Currently I’m working on an eight-story courthouse in downtown San Jose.

“As union workers, we’ve really got to stay on top of the field, because they’re always coming out with new technology. We have to be the best and know how to use the technology to put out a quality product and stay competitive. It’s neat how we see more of the cutting edge stuff. With what I do now, the mechanical theory is the same, but the way you control it and the technology of how you can see it all with the graphics is always getting updated.

“I’ve got three daughters; My oldest is 20, and I also have 16-year-old twins. My oldest is a junior at San Jose State University. She’s the first one on my side of the family to go to college. I was so excited when she got in! We’re sending her to school without any financial aid or loans. When she graduates, she will have zero debt. We plan to do the same with the twins. My wife and I promised all of our girls a bachelor’s degree. My wife is a nurse and she’s in a union too. Without the union giving us the ability to make a decent wage, there’s no way we would have been able to lead the life we live. Not that we’re living extravagantly, just being able to send our kids to school.

“When I’m not at work I enjoy dirt bike riding. But actually, I can’t ride right now because I injured my knee. I was racing in the AMA District 36 Enduro series and at the last race I ended up crashing. In the summertime I like to go backpacking. Some of my buddies and I go out into the Sierras and take some pretty extended backpacking trips out there, we’ll go out for up to five days or so.

“Aside from the good wages and the security of a good retirement with my pension, what I like about the union is the brotherhood. I’d like to see more of that — more brotherhood between the trades. When I’m on a job I have to interact with the other building trades and our fellow 393 members. I’d like to see us unite and have more solidarity together in the trades. Most of us don’t like politics, but the politics are where it’s at. That’s where they determine whether certain jobs are built union or not. When the city council is pro-worker and pro-union, we end up getting more jobs, and non-union guys aren’t exploited at an unfair wage. So we’ve got to stay knowledgeable about of the politics of it all, for our own good.”