NPUA

[justme]

So what are you wondering?
Did you summit your resume with them yet?
Sounds like you are attacking them and have some problem with them trying to help the technicans.
What they are trying to do is help all of us earn a better living.
I was just wondering if you would ever work for them if they got  contracts.
If the techs are already working it won't really make a difference.
How about when bartlett and atlantic both summit your resumes to the same plant.If your working for one  i guess you cant go with the other.
The  NPUA are not trying to put anybody out of bizz. They just are trying to get the wages up to at least house tech levels and fed. per diem rate for all your trouble of traveling and exp's.
So you can earn what you deserve.
maybe even get you some better health coverage unless that obama mortages the country to give us all it for free.

Just wondering what would you suggestion be to do it the right way?

Speaking of attacking?
As I stated, I wasn't attacking, just asking questions.  If one doesn't ask, one doesn't know.
Do you just jump into anything without proper information.  .  Would you work for them or are you all talk?  Don't assume anything about me and I won't about you.
NPUA can be a good thing, just not there yet. 

[justme]

Don't forget about DCPP...  you work for the utility directly, not through another company or union.  You only pay dues when you work.
NPUA can't compare itself to this and doesn't.  They are different from each other.

[UncaBuffalo]

Pine not for what you feel worth, my friend.  Meaningless in the marketplace.

Degreed RPs from Laguna Verde will work their asses off...and do, for half what you "feel" worth.

One sleepy house tech can remotely cover 3 high rad jobs by video/teledosimetry with doughnuts in hand for a fraction of what a crew of 3-in-3-out diemDuds "feel" worth.

The Work Hour Rule will dilute your OT and further disrupt the market.  Utilities are accelerating programs to wean themselves off outage.  And they are not finding it difficult to do.

I have to ring in on that one.  Yeah, some of the techs from south of the border work hard...some don't...just like any other category of techs you can give me...

[Hoser]

Interesting thread. But... please don't compare house utility Radiation Protection / Health Physics wages  with the contractor's unless you add in the total values. Contractor R.Ps /H.Ps for the most part, do not get any of the added benefits that have a real monetary value such as short and long term disability, paid sick time, paid new dad / mom time etc.
As for the Per-diem, that should never be on the contract table period. There is a national publication  that our country's gov. employees and Representatives use and that should be the simple guide. The kiss principle should really apply; my opinion ;-)
Also it is my opinion that  we really need to remove the viewed responsibility of the Utility's and Contract companies of the wages of the technicians. Technicians whether house or contract, are a market driven force. The utilities are bound to their shareholders and can only do so by getting the best value for the least cost to maximize their shareholder investments. They will pay the market price. The contract companies will do what they can do stay in business by keeping as many products they manage, there by earning the % profit share that they have decided on. In a nut shell, the ball is in our court " technicians ". My father " bless his soul " used to say: " your worth what you are willing to work for ...so.. ifin your not happy.. get off MY boat ".
If anything, the NPUA can and should be a leader in the publication of true values. It is a labor organization. At this time, the only losers the last 15 years are the contract technicians and we are the ones who are directly responsible.

[retired nuke]

Interesting thread. But... please don't compare house utility Radiation Protection / Health Physics wages  with the contractor's unless you add in the total values. Contractor R.Ps /H.Ps for the most part, do not get any of the added benefits that have a real monetary value such as short and long term disability, paid sick time, paid new dad / mom time etc.
As for the Per-diem, that should never be on the contract table period. There is a national publication  that our country's gov. employees and Representatives use and that should be the simple guide. The kiss principle should really apply; my opinion ;-)
Also it is my opinion that  we really need to remove the viewed responsibility of the Utility's and Contract companies of the wages of the technicians. Technicians whether house or contract, are a market driven force. The utilities are bound to their shareholders and can only do so by getting the best value for the least cost to maximize their shareholder investments. They will pay the market price. The contract companies will do what they can do stay in business by keeping as many products they manage, there by earning the % profit share that they have decided on. In a nut shell, the ball is in our court " technicians ". My father " bless his soul " used to say: " your worth what you are willing to work for ...so.. ifin your not happy.. get off MY boat ".
If anything, the NPUA can and should be a leader in the publication of true values. It is a labor organization. At this time, the only losers the last 15 years are the contract technicians and we are the ones who are directly responsible.

Well said Don. 
I don't see the contract worker getting any leverage. It's been tried in the past, even with previous DOE ramp ups - remember when all those techs went to Fernald / Mound / RFETS etc? nothing changed.
If you want house tech wages, you gonna have to get a house tech job.
Too many years of 3 in 3 out break room commandos, and utilities short staffing, and making it, have shown that RPs, who do not produce anything, are not high dollar requirements.
 

[Hoser]

get a house tech job.

I read that !   

[Brett LaVigne]

Pine not for what you feel worth, my friend.  Meaningless in the marketplace.

Degreed RPs from Laguna Verde will work their asses off...and do, for half what you "feel" worth.

One sleepy house tech can remotely cover 3 high rad jobs by video/teledosimetry with doughnuts in hand for a fraction of what a crew of 3-in-3-out diemDuds "feel" worth.

The Work Hour Rule will dilute your OT and further disrupt the market.  Utilities are accelerating programs to wean themselves off outage.  And they are not finding it difficult to do.

You have either been away from the outage rounds for too long and don't remember, or, you were never there and speak with no basis. Your comment of covering 3 high rad jobs with donuts in hand is a pretty good indicator of what quality of coverage can be expected by many house techs if the contractors went away. That's if you can find them or wake them to do the remote coverage. Most of your posts have a negative bias toward contract techs, that usually means that you have never been one. But remember, many many MANY rent-a-techs have been house techs before. Some have been many times. Many others come right out of the Navy or shipyard and have a very strong RP base. The idea that house techs are more trained is true, if you are talking about shift work in an operating unit. As far as experience goes, you are only going to get real outage, job coverage experience from being a traveler.

I just realized that I am wasting valuable time splitting hairs. You think contract techs deserve less $ than a house tech for doing most of the RP work at your outages, and you are dead wrong! Why don't you hit the road for a couple of years and get back to us when you have enough experience to speak about this subject and be taken seriously. Maybe let us know what plant you work at so we traveling techs can be forewarned that the help will not be appreciated.

If you think there are no staffing problems this fall for RP's, that is really the most obvious sign that you are out of touch with the outage/contract scene. What ever, I'm done.

[Brett LaVigne]

Damn it Brother Brett!

Ya, I know.

Someone gets on here and asks about the NPUA and then somehow the thread turns into how worthless meterswangin thinks contract techs are.

The facts are this. There are some worthless RP folks on both sides of the fence, and unfortunately those are the ones that people remember. They don't remember the contract tech that was competent, came to work and took care of business. The techs on the road that match the latter are the majority IMO. I also know plenty of great house guys, Palo, Cook, Hatch all have examples of this. So whats with the stone throwing?! It's immature and I appologize for getting sucked into it too.

[azkidd]

I,m sorry.....but this is getting into another topic...another thread dealing with...union issues.  NPUA hasn't even thought about submitting a contract negotiation yet!!  Lets put Union issues where they belong.  I believe the point has been made about NPUA...  go to the website, see what they have to say, give them your input (if any), so be it.  Put Union issues, biases' etc on the other thread.

Thank You

[MeterSwangin]

Take no offense, dear Brett.  The point is not to malign, but discuss.

Fact:  The market is changing drastically for road techs.

Fact:  Many (some on this list) feel entitled, and thus disrespected.  NPUA seeks to capitalize.

Fact:  Good or not, disrespected or not, Diem-Techs are going the way of the dodo bird.

So don't attack...adapt.

[11 for 12]

Pine not for what you feel worth, my friend.  Meaningless in the marketplace.

Degreed RPs from Laguna Verde will work their asses off...and do, for half what you "feel" worth.

One sleepy house tech can remotely cover 3 high rad jobs by video/teledosimetry with doughnuts in hand for a fraction of what a crew of 3-in-3-out diemDuds "feel" worth.

The Work Hour Rule will dilute your OT and further disrupt the market.  Utilities are accelerating programs to wean themselves off outage.  And they are not finding it difficult to do.

[11 for 12]

Oh I got to answer this!
First off what does that have to do with the price of a dozen eggs in china that the mexicans work hard?
First off have you ever worked with them some are very good and some are as lazy as the day is long just like some of our gringo techs.
 
Also at  your plant you sound like you got some pretty worthless house techs ,
if they are covering 3 locked high rad jobs sleeping.
It sounds like th only thing you guys are really concerned about at your plant is if the doughnuts are powdered or cream filled.

Sounds like you need some new techs at your plant with those kinds of work practices

Also if the plants ween off of us your house techs might have to get off playing on the internet and cover some work.

 

Pine not for what you feel worth, my friend.  Meaningless in the marketplace.

Degreed RPs from Laguna Verde will work their asses off...and do, for half what you "feel" worth.

One sleepy house tech can remotely cover 3 high rad jobs by video/teledosimetry with doughnuts in hand for a fraction of what a crew of 3-in-3-out diemDuds "feel" worth.

The Work Hour Rule will dilute your OT and further disrupt the market.  Utilities are accelerating programs to wean themselves off outage.  And they are not finding it difficult to do.

[11 for 12]

Take no offense, dear Brett.  The point is not to malign, but discuss.

Fact:  The market is changing drastically for road techs.

Fact:  Many (some on this list) feel entitled, and thus disrespected.  NPUA seeks to capitalize.

Fact:  Good or not, disrespected or not, Diem-Techs are going the way of the dodo bird.

So don't attack...adapt.

The npua is trying to help make the techs more money and benifits they  deserve.
As far as your self rightous thinking,anwser me this do you feel that sr house techs deserve to make more money than contract sr rp's i would like to here an answer to that question.

AS far as us going the way of dodo bird when we die off the sloughs will rule the world and have to get off their ass's do some work for a change because lets face it during an outage the contractors do mostly all the work. It's ok you can say it it's all right to say the contract techs due most of the work.

[Dave Warren]

Marssim, you have been out in the dirt way too long.
Talking about bulls and herds and what not.

I think alot of people are getting their feelings hurt here because as we all know NPUA and Bartlett are not the best of friends.
There are people here with a certain amount of allegiance to Bartlett.
The Bartlett lemmings see the NPUA as a threat.
Here are some lines from the great movie, "The Warriors", altered slightly by Dave Warren.......

Can you count, suckers? I say, the future is ours... if you can count!

Now, look what we have here before us. We got the Atlantic Group sitting next to The Bartlett Boys. We've got DeNuke right by CSI. Nobody is wasting nobody. That... is a miracle. And miracles is the way things ought to be.
 
You're standing right now with nine delegates from 100 power plants. And there's over a hundred more. That's 20,000 hardcore members. Forty-thousand, counting affiliates, and twenty-thousand more, not organized, but ready to fight: 60,000 soldiers! Now, there ain't but 20,000 house techs in the whole town.
Can you dig it?
 Yeah.
 Yeah!
Cyrus: Can you dig it?
Gang Members: YEAH!
  Now, here's the sum total: One gang could run this city! One gang. Nothing would move without us allowing it to happen. We could tax the crime syndicates, the police, because WE got the streets, suckers! Can you dig it?

[xobxdoc]

  Now, here's the sum total: One gang could run this city! One gang. Nothing would move without us allowing it to happen. We could tax the crime syndicates, the police, because WE got the streets, suckers! Can you dig it?

[/quote]

Isn't it right about here where Cyrus got blown away?

[thenukeman]

Can you dig it.  LOL  The Warriors

[SoCal]

Did everyone hear?
The NPUA (via Spectrum), got the contract at Wolf Creek!  35 & 109 with HARD start and stop dates.  

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship...    

[11 for 12]

CONGRATS TO NPUA its been a long time coming and i hope it makes some compitition and helps out all the techs with better pay and bennies. We tried in 90 and this time i hope the techs support the movement towards a better life

[Brett LaVigne]

Did everyone hear?
The NPUA (via Spectrum), got the contract at Wolf Creek!  35 & 109 with HARD start and stop dates.  

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship...    

Hopefully the first of many! Congratulations NPUA!

[HenryBlack]

I was just wondering who got the contract. Was it the NPUA or Spectrum. It was my understanding that the NPUA is a Union type organization that bargained for its members and would not be bidding on any particular contract at a job site. If I misunderstood what the NPUA is please let me know. So I take it that Spectrum got the contract and the NPUA has a contract with Spectrum and anyone that accepts a job there would have the NPUA  as their bargaining voice. Please make sure that we are all informed of what is actually going on here.

[UncaBuffalo]

I was just wondering who got the contract. Was it the NPUA or Spectrum. It was my understanding that the NPUA is a Union type organization that bargained for its members and would not be bidding on any particular contract at a job site. If I misunderstood what the NPUA is please let me know. So I take it that Spectrum got the contract and the NPUA has a contract with Spectrum and anyone that accepts a job there would have the NPUA  as their bargaining voice. Please make sure that we are all informed of what is actually going on here.

Yeah, it's Spectrum that has the contract, but they will only be hiring union personnel (thru NPUA), so...

[Camella Black]

Yeah, it's Spectrum that has the contract, but they will only be hiring union personnel (thru NPUA), so...

According to Spectrum they are hiring through the NPUA.

[UncaBuffalo]

Yeah, it's Spectrum that has the contract, but they will only be hiring union personnel (thru NPUA), so...

According to Spectrum they are hiring through the NPUA.

Yes.

[Rennhack]

According to NPUA:

Wolf Creek has awarded Spectrum Technical Group a split contract for the October 10th, 2009 outage that is scheduled to last until November 22nd. There are 59 Senior RP positions paying as high as $40/hour with the federal per Diem and travel rates. This is the first of many we hope to be supporting this fall.

[UncaBuffalo]

Yeah!  $40 an hour is enough that a house tech has to start looking at available vacation hours!