My Name is Marty Figgs and I’m from Newark, Delaware. I am an original and now retired member of Local Carpenters Union #626 in New Castle, Delaware since March 27, 1997. 

With the Philly merger, became #173, and finally with New Jersey and the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, EASRCC, local #255. 

When I was in high school, during the 10th & 11th grades, I knew I didn’t want to go to college, so I didn’t spend my summers like normal teenagers, but instead, I went to work in New Jersey with my uncle.

I’d travel to my uncle’s house and stay up there all week long, come home on Friday night and then back to New Jersey Sunday evening. I figured I’d go to work for my uncle, make some money and learn a trade at the same time. It was during this period, I started to learn the trade of carpentry.

Graduated from high school in 1978, my buddy and I immediately moved to the beach in Ocean City, Maryland where we spent the entire summer working as a dishwashers and cooks in the evenings and spent most days chasing the girls around on the beach. I had to play catch-up sometime, AHH, The good ole days!

After that summer was over, I moved back home for about 6 months, saved some money, got my own apartment, and went to work for Beatty Drywall. After spending two years there, I moved on to Spacecon Inc. where I spent the next 12 years. I left Spacecon in early 1992 to go to work for another uncle.

I got tired of metal studs and drywall and started sub-contracting siding and trim work from him. Unfortunately, I became the victim of theft and had all my scaffolding and other equipment just disappear one night. At that point, I decided to go back to what I did best, metal studs and drywall. I went to work for a company called Best Drywall.

After four years with them, I met a man by the name of Joe Durham who at the time was the business agent for Local Carpenters Union # 626 in New Castle, Delaware.

I remember that day so vividly. You see, I had lost my 1st wife 11 days before Christmas in “95”, became a single dad and raising my 5-year-old daughter on my own and struggling very hard to make ends meet.

Not nearly making enough money to meet all my financial obligations, I took Joe up on his offer and the opportunity he gave me and joined my local carpenters union. Joe gave me this chance on March 27, 1997.
It’s a day and date I will never forget.

Anyway, looking back, the entire year of “97” was a banner year for me and like a shot in the arm of adrenaline and I never looked back. I’ve met and made many friends along the way, and I have learned a whole lot more.

The layoffs were sometimes tough to endure but I managed to get by. Fortunately, there wasn’t too many of them. I am now currently retired from the carpenters union since January of 2022 but it will be short lived as my next chapter will begin in April 2024.

I had an opportunity come my way and an offer I couldn’t refuse and proud to say, I will be creating hundreds of well paid union jobs to come.

To learn more about that, go here on the Internet, 

our Facebook page at Scandinavian Auto Systems

or at our YouTube channel.

Now, here’s another story.

In 1994, I got my first computer. I paid nearly $2000.00 dollars for it back then on a credit card. Man was I crazy or what! Maybe, but I had to have one. I was one of those techy nerdy guys that liked new technology but not as nerdy as the guys on Big Bang Theory. By the way, I love that show. Those guys & gals really crack me up!

Anyway, at the time, it was one of the best investments I ever made, and the timing was perfect. My daughter was just starting school and I had a keyboard in front of her at 4 years old and started on the computer.

She attended high school at Delcastle Technical High School, graduated from her shop of Practical Nursing and is now a registered nurse herself with a very successful career. I couldn’t be more proud of her for the woman she has grown into.

Anyway, the computer has expanded my boundaries as well. That very same year I got my first computer, I became connected to the Internet and America Online. At that time, AOL had less than 3 million subscribers.

I began learning and teaching myself the fine art of building web sites and web pages. The pic you see here is me at 38 years old as I began developing my method into the service I now offer you here today and all from the dinosaur computer 
you see right here in front of me. It is exactly how I solicited work for myself starting just about one year after joining my local carpenters union and for the entirety of my union career. 

This technique worked great for me, and I hope after you take a look around and browse my site, it’ll be a technique you’ll want to take advantage of also.

Thank you for taking the time to read this short bio and learn more about me and if you like what you see here, please spread the word about this site to all the union carpenters that you know.