News and Discussions > Nuke News
The Last Outage!
RAD-GHOST:
Love the recent posting for techs, just a couple of opportunities left, get them while they last! This past summer, brought an unusual demand for techs in the world of DOE & D&D. Looks like about 200 to 300 crossed the tracks, out of the outage scene. Hopefully, for the ones who remain in the outage circuit, your worth will grow, along with your paychecks.
It only took a decade, but the Commercials Industries Economic Plan is working, Techs are realizing the road trips just aren't worth the effort, or the poor compensation! It is coming to the point where techs don't have to mass and discuse the situation, I think every tech has made there own decision that it just isn't worth it any more! In the past, Techs would work the outages and figure out what to do in their down time. Today, techs figure out their main source of income and fit an outage into that schedule. Looks like some have other plans right now!
I don't know how many techs have looked at the real expensed associated with the short outages, but there intense. Your wage clock doesn't start until you show up at the door! Two days drive to a job and two days back, equates to 4 days of lost wages and Per Diem! Add hotel rooms and meals and your looking at a big out of pocket expense! The pennies per mile, are for auto expenses, not living expenses and wages! Then you hit one of these sites that puts a cap on it, like $125.00! Who the hell can live, one day on the road, for $125.00 ? I believe gas is running around $1.90 a gallon right now!
I believe a bonus round in coming in the near future. You can take it if you want, but you are just kicking yourself in the butt for the future. The utilities and contract companies just use this as a temporary fix to keep wages frozen. They'll give you an extra grand to show up this outage, but it won't be there next outage! Bonus's have a lot of conditions attached and usually sit in the companies bank for many months before you see them! An increase in wages is a solid win, the bonus thing is still lip service and a way to keep wages low! Wages are guaranteed by law, bonus's are not!
To the utilities, there are still a lot of techs sitting in the wings, but you only get what you pay for! The tighter your wallet, the tighter your staffing! You can have all the staffing contracts you want, but I think you will find most techs work for themselves! Your outage schedules are also a joke and a game that is erroding the appeal of your sites. As most techs know, outages are a gamble. Last season, techs were getting cancilation notices while driving to a site, NICE! Even when they show up, they get bombed with the rumors of budget cuts and layoffs in the first couple of days! It seems like a pretty simple situation, when you wind up half staffed on your next outage, just tell the VP, you burnt them last outage, why would they come back this outage? Then ask him to weight the cost of a citation vs the extra cost of an adaquate staff! In todays industry, techs are needed more than ever. Most sites are staffing the trades with 40 to 60% new to nukes! That's a lot of baby sitting! It's just a matter of time before the problem is realized, usually after it is to late! No problem, the VP can rub his neck and write the check, either pay it now, or pay it later, your option!
I think in another week or two, techs will become a rare commodity! It's all about $!
Have a Great Day, RG
Beta_effect:
I am so suprised that RATS have not organized nationally. The last info I had from a few years ago was that there were only ~2000 techs carrying the load for the entire outage scene. What a powerful position to be in. Have there been any attempts in the past to get such an organization in place?
Camella Black:
Beta_effect,
Hold on to your hat cause you just opened a can of worms :). A lot of techs out there got burned during the last big attempt to organize so its caused some bad memories.
I am not a tech, but the spouse, sister, and daughter of techs and I have long called for some type of organization like the AMA, AARP or the like, not union but something. I have given up hope of this every happening, maybe the next generation will see it.
Nuclear NASCAR:
I think I smell an educational thread about IBEW Local 1000 coming out of the woodwork. Do a search of the site with IBEW as the keyword. That should bring up some interesting answers. Personal opinion only, I think that the last fiasco may have ruined chances of organizing for a long time. It sounds to me as though it was only done to up the number of dues paying members. That's not the reason to organize, it's to improve conditions for the effected group. For it to be successful there has to be consensus. Things usually have to get bad for that to happen and it does appear on it's way there.
Beta_effect:
Well no doubt that this could be a can of worms. The last thing the utilities want to see is the last bastion of rad sponges organize-they have enough problems dealing with their own in-house HPs. Still though, the small dwindling supply of people swing the power pendulum in favor of roadies.
Perhaps the real power may lie with the RAT companies themselves-they most certainly will be in a position to make positive changes should they decide to do so-they are after all the ones negotiating the contracts with the utilities.
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