0 reactions
An Entire Regions Trade Should Not Be Owned By A Single Company
I work for a national corporate Fire Protection company in the bay area, California. they bought out the previous conpany and I was hired on after the buyout.
They are paying 10+ year incredibly hard working and FAST journeymen $40\~ dollars less than union wages. Journeyman wages in my area are $79/hour. My foreman is 63 years old, limping around for 45$ an hour. The journeymen make between 33 and 38.
After apprentices in this company graduate, they have a choice. Take the "foreman package" and keep the wage that you're at, roughly 45 dollars an hour give or take how much they like you.
Or don't become a foreman, and your wage is cut 10-15 dollars. They actually reduce your pay, on the spot, from 45 dollars to 35 dollars. Oh, and not all foreman get a truck or other perks that come with seniority and responsibility. You have to "earn your stripes".
This is why unions matter. The CAFSA program, our non union state mandated schooling dictates we are paid a certain % of journeyman wages. But because its a privately owned company, they dictate journeyman wages. So to comply with the school, the journeyman wage is actually foreman wage. Hence cutting wages after graduation.
The CAFSA program also punishes apprentices and companies by not allowing us to be "poached". Simply put, we are not allowed to apply to other jobs, and companies are not allowed to hire working apprentices. This would work if the pay disparity between one company to another for apprentices was minimal. My classmates make significantly more money than I do. So because this company is now owned by a massive billion dollar corp, they take any apprentice out of work and lock them down. Dont like it? Quit. Well, quitting not only causes the apprentice to lose "action points" but the porgram is inept at finding an out of work apprentice a job.
My area has 3 national fire protection companies buying all the little guys. Some have integrity and keep wages respectable. Some, like this one completely fuck the fitters so that the top of the company and shareholders can rake in large six figure salaries and five to six figure bonuses while the state mandated school refuses to do anything for apprentices because "we cant dictate what they pay you"
It's completely broken. Trust me, before you say anything, I'm getting the fuck out of this shit hole company but I will tell everyone on the way that allowing state and federal governments to gut unions has allowed for a 63 year old overweight man to limp around all day for 40 dollars less than the average wage with no hope of retiring.
#industry
source
I work for a national corporate Fire Protection company in the bay area, California. they bought out the previous conpany and I was hired on after the buyout.
They are paying 10+ year incredibly hard working and FAST journeymen $40\~ dollars less than union wages. Journeyman wages in my area are $79/hour. My foreman is 63 years old, limping around for 45$ an hour. The journeymen make between 33 and 38.
After apprentices in this company graduate, they have a choice. Take the "foreman package" and keep the wage that you're at, roughly 45 dollars an hour give or take how much they like you.
Or don't become a foreman, and your wage is cut 10-15 dollars. They actually reduce your pay, on the spot, from 45 dollars to 35 dollars. Oh, and not all foreman get a truck or other perks that come with seniority and responsibility. You have to "earn your stripes".
This is why unions matter. The CAFSA program, our non union state mandated schooling dictates we are paid a certain % of journeyman wages. But because its a privately owned company, they dictate journeyman wages. So to comply with the school, the journeyman wage is actually foreman wage. Hence cutting wages after graduation.
The CAFSA program also punishes apprentices and companies by not allowing us to be "poached". Simply put, we are not allowed to apply to other jobs, and companies are not allowed to hire working apprentices. This would work if the pay disparity between one company to another for apprentices was minimal. My classmates make significantly more money than I do. So because this company is now owned by a massive billion dollar corp, they take any apprentice out of work and lock them down. Dont like it? Quit. Well, quitting not only causes the apprentice to lose "action points" but the porgram is inept at finding an out of work apprentice a job.
My area has 3 national fire protection companies buying all the little guys. Some have integrity and keep wages respectable. Some, like this one completely fuck the fitters so that the top of the company and shareholders can rake in large six figure salaries and five to six figure bonuses while the state mandated school refuses to do anything for apprentices because "we cant dictate what they pay you"
It's completely broken. Trust me, before you say anything, I'm getting the fuck out of this shit hole company but I will tell everyone on the way that allowing state and federal governments to gut unions has allowed for a 63 year old overweight man to limp around all day for 40 dollars less than the average wage with no hope of retiring.
#industry
source
0 reactions
Job massively underbid and at a loss for what to do.
Not sure how to proceed from here. Bid a job last year and was awarded the contract by the GC. Fast forward to now and we just got started on the project. I've already found massive misses from my estimator and the more I delve into it, the more I find. Not really sure what to do. If we do the job I'm going to come out of pocket to finish to the tune of tens of thousands and it's only a 200k contract. Should have been 300k or over. If I just walk I'm pretty sure I'm Going to get sued for the difference by the GC. They had to have known my number was way too low. Any ideas on what to do here? For context I am a painting contractor and we missed a bunch of fly ash on the exterior and Azek trim on the job.
#industry
source
Not sure how to proceed from here. Bid a job last year and was awarded the contract by the GC. Fast forward to now and we just got started on the project. I've already found massive misses from my estimator and the more I delve into it, the more I find. Not really sure what to do. If we do the job I'm going to come out of pocket to finish to the tune of tens of thousands and it's only a 200k contract. Should have been 300k or over. If I just walk I'm pretty sure I'm Going to get sued for the difference by the GC. They had to have known my number was way too low. Any ideas on what to do here? For context I am a painting contractor and we missed a bunch of fly ash on the exterior and Azek trim on the job.
#industry
source