Watts Bar

[ageoldtech]

I received a 55 gallon drum when I got here!

[DaveWarren]

That's all good stuff. You guys should take your comedy routine on the road. You would probably make more money!!

Anyway, the technicians coming in right now and recently, what company or companies are they coming in to work for?

[Dream Tarheel]

I can understand the locals to a point but travelers who go there are idiots.
Their sending our wages back to the stone age or at least the 1980's
If I want to see the 80's again I'll watch VH1
PEACE OUT

There is no point to understand where the locals are concerned. How stupid to you have to be to travel 1000 miles and have extra expenses, if that's not what you want to do. If you have kids, and some do, working at home is the right thing to do if you can.

But again, I agree, the travelers should just stay away, it's the only thing that makes sense. Make them WBN house techs do something, like everything! Someone be sure to post the pictures for each of the Christmas Parties at the SGRP.

[LaFeet]

Ya gotta do whatch gotta do 

[Dream Tarheel]

Some union boys would do something similar to this; they would get a list of all the scabs, and beat the crap out of them.  It’s not very civilized, but it sure is effective.

That's kinda funny.

[duke99301]

I was there and loved it 40 an hour and 85 a day last years outage good gig ran into a lot of guys I had not seen snice Oconne's SGRP.
anyways very nice place to work pleasent drive and Nice people at the plant .
If it was not for the good gig I got now I be there!

[Dream Tarheel]

O'yea, rumor is if they can't staff by 8-15-06, it's gonna go up to 33.43/hr and 16.75 aday.

[LaFeet]

I think I will skip that outage in favor of another, even with the bump in pay - if it happens

[TN-Man]

Despite all the talk on here I took the job. I start 4/3. A summer of 40's is better than being laid off, like I am looking at here at ORNL. There is not much of a future here and the $29.00/hr is $.85 more on the hour. Besides I am ready to work indoors again. I'll post how it is. I hear the folks there are good to work with. So don't send the union or the mafia to beat me up. I have a kid on the way this summer and need to feed him and his Mama.

[ageoldtech]

Glad to hear, we need all the help we can get.

[stirfry]

hey TN man

If worried bout the mafia FUGETABOUDIT...Just have L ot T start your car

good luck and keep in touch

bada bing   

[foreverajr]

Watts Bar truly is a great place to work.  It is a place where they still expect you do to things correctly, even though you may be used to the "slap it back together and we'll see how long it lasts" mentality from other nuclear facilities.  The house techs, and the returnee road techs that come in, are awesome.  The area isn't that expensive, it's beautiful and to tell the truth, there isn't a better place to be in the summer time than Watts Bar Lake.  The payrate isn't quite as high as other plants, but then again, there is something to be said about not dreading the beginning of your shift.

[RadBastard]

Despite all the talk on here I took the job. I start 4/3. A summer of 40's is better than being laid off, like I am looking at here at ORNL. There is not much of a future here and the $29.00/hr is $.85 more on the hour. Besides I am ready to work indoors again. I'll post how it is. I hear the folks there are good to work with. So don't send the union or the mafia to beat me up. I have a kid on the way this summer and need to feed him and his Mama.

TN-MAN
We won't have to beat you up.
You working for those wages is puinshment enough.If your local I can't hate u to much,but if u are a traveler you have got to be crazy.You can make more on unemployment and sitting at the house then working 40's with double the expences.You'll be working for free then.
God bless you
There's more money to be made out there.

[RedNeckRadcon]

TN-MAN
We won't have to beat you up.
You working for those wages is puinshment enough.If your local I can't hate u to much,but if u are a traveler you have got to be crazy.You can make more on unemployment and sitting at the house then working 40's with double the expences.That's why Lincoln freed the slaves.You'll be working for free then.
God bless you
There's more money to be made out there.

I dont know what you are talking about.. I was able to make in the 90s last year working for TVA and was able to write off the lack of PD at a rate of 100 per day. (I would say not bad for a Slave)

After Taxes that comes out to $29 per hr and 100 a day DM.  (With a very nice Check at the end of the Year)

You can travel around the contry doing 5 or 6 outages if you want, I will gust stay here in Tennessee and get all there money that I can.

PS If any one out there don't want to come to tennessee to work for punishing wages, for gods sake please do us and your self a favor and go some were else.

PSS It is a lot warmer here in Tennessee than say New Jersey or PA, and a heck of a lot better to look at to.
 

[LaFeet]

Did you work all year long? at 40 hours a week?

If so, then thats 45 $/hour

If you worked 50 weeks and totaled 3000 hours, then that would be 30 $/hour

[illegalsmile]

I'm sittin' here on the shores of Lake Erie, hatin' life, and the people who told me this was the only opening they had (I'll let you guess who that might B). If y'all can tell me how to get to Tennessee to work, please do so.
I spent 8 mos at Oak Ridge and my neck still hurts from snappin' it around checkin' out the cuties in Knoxville....and they are mostly attitude-free.

[BeerCourt]

I dont know what you are talking about.. I was able to make in the 90s last year working for TVA and was able to write off the lack of PD at a rate of 100 per day. (I would say not bad for a Slave)

After Taxes that comes out to $29 per hr and 100 a day DM.  (With a very nice Check at the end of the Year)

You can travel around the contry doing 5 or 6 outages if you want, I will gust stay here in Tennessee and get all there money that I can.

PS If any one out there don't want to come to tennessee to work for punishing wages, for gods sake please do us and your self a favor and go some were else.

PSS It is a lot warmer here in Tennessee than say New Jersey or PA, and a heck of a lot better to look at to.
 

I hope you have receipts for that $100/day.  The idea that you can write off  a deduction for per diem you didn't get is an urban myth that has landed a lot of roadies in a vat of boiling water with the IRS.
If you work nowhere else, you can't write anything off anyway, per-diem or not.  I realize that it is impossible to get an HP to do something as silly as this, but try reading the actual rules on this.  The IRS will send you a copy for free, or you can get it at www.irs.gov.

[Rennhack]

I hope you have receipts for that $100/day.  The idea that you can write off  a deduction for per diem you didn't get is an urban myth that has landed a lot of roadies in a vat of boiling water with the IRS.
If you work nowhere else, you can't write anything off anyway, per-diem or not.  I realize that it is impossible to get an HP to do something as silly as this, but try reading the actual rules on this.  The IRS will send you a copy for free, or you can get it at www.irs.gov.

Troy is right.  We've both been telling people this for years.

[BeerCourt]

Did you work all year long? at 40 hours a week?

If so, then thats 45 $/hour

If you worked 50 weeks and totaled 3000 hours, then that would be 30 $/hour

If you work 16 weeks of 84 hrs per week at $29/hour, that's $49184.  If you worked the remaining 36 weeks at 40 hrs/week, that's $41760.  That totals to $90944.

So, it is possible (theoretically) to make "in the 90's", from working only TVA.  Maybe RedneckRadCon is a local favorite who never gets a layoff.  It happens sometimes.

[LaFeet]

Okay I can see that happening

[Dream Tarheel]

Besides I am ready to work indoors again.

FYI, it was aweful cold this morning with that wind blowing, but my frisker didnt freeze up once, just so you dont get that big surprise they forgot to tell you about.

[RadBastard]

BEERCOURT ,
I would like to know how anybody gets to work 16 weeks of outage at TVA ,there short?
Also where they get to work 84 hours a week at TVA???
You make a good case but in the real world of hp they numbers don't crunch up right.
He is one really lucky HP

[BeerCourt]

Heck, I dunno.  How many units do they have?  I was just trying to come up with a scenario that was possible.  I never offered my opinion as to whether or not it was likely.
I find that most HP's exaggerate their annual incomes, usually by counting every dollar of per diem as a buck and a half of income and neglecting to subtract all those hotel and travel expenses.
I figure a contract HP in a good year makes between 50 - 60 grand, plus another 5k - 9k in "unspent" per diem.  Add on another 12 - 14 large for unemployment, and you wind up with a total in the neighborhood of $75,000.  Anybody who says he made more than that is probably stretching it a bit.

[hamsamich]

I agree with beer, but there are a few exceptions, I think.  Couples that get a years worth of work somewhere who own RVs and get a fairly big payrate plus decent diem probably come close to hitting or topping 100k each. The exception and not the rule.  Maybe it was Rocky Flats or some place where people were banking big dollars for wearing respirators and working 72-84 hours a week??  I dunno, but seems possible if the stars align correctly.

[RadBastard]

Heck, I dunno.  How many units do they have?  I was just trying to come up with a scenario that was possible.  I never offered my opinion as to whether or not it was likely.
I find that most HP's exaggerate their annual incomes, usually by counting every dollar of per diem as a buck and a half of income and neglecting to subtract all those hotel and travel expenses.
I figure a contract HP in a good year makes between 50 - 60 grand, plus another 5k - 9k in "unspent" per diem.  Add on another 12 - 14 large for unemployment, and you wind up with a total in the neighborhood of $75,000.  Anybody who says he made more than that is probably stretching it a bit.

BEERCOURT AMEN MY BROTHER! You hit the nail on the head.That money sounds about right you said with wages,diem,unenjoyment
Usally when an hp tells you something about money it's a half truth.Then of that 1/2 only believe 1/2 of that.
RADBASTARD

[TN-Man]

FYI, it was aweful cold this morning with that wind blowing, but my frisker didnt freeze up once, just so you dont get that big surprise they forgot to tell you about.

Does this mean we are doing tool decon outside??

  RadBastard,
Yes I am local....

[ageoldtech]

TN-Man, were doing some outside frisking on some material that came from other utilities, "a clean sweep project". We should be about finished by the time to you get trained. For tool decon, we have a new decon building, I just set up a PM-7 and a PCM-2 in there this morning.

[RadBastard]

Does this mean we are doing tool decon outside??

  RadBastard,
Yes I am local....

Tn-man ,
That's cool your a local.
I can understand people who are local that work there with family close.

It's travelers that go when they can make alot more money elsewhere than at those wages.
If nobody but the locals put in and it was hard to staff,they may have to raise the wages to get people to come,not this nickle dime BS.
This would benifit all in the future,It's common sence.
Although common sence in this bizz is out the window.

[RadBastard]

Well ,I like to think all of our slamming and bad mouthing of watts bar about the messed up per diem situation paid off.

The few of us who took it in our hands to stir the pot,hamsamich,lafeet to say a few, paid off for everyone out there.

We caught alot of grief from people,but if no one took it in their hands we may still be getting no diem or $1250 a month then it's taxed.

We can effect change out there if we stick together.

your comrade in arms
RADBASTARD

[Industry Event]

BRAVO RAD BASTARD,
IF WE DID NOT STICK TOGETHER WE ALL WOULD STILL BE GETTING $25 HR.
WE STUCK TOGETHER AND GOT A $4 HR RAISE.