Rent-a-tech company improvements?

[Content1]

I don't think this is possible anymore, but haved outages try to keep the tech busy during the actual outage without long 2 week gaps in so called "Back to Back" outages.   The other ideas, car rental, 401k's, raises of $5 per hour, etc. in that this is a business, Bartlett if it gave such expensive packages would not get the contact to someone who would do it cheaper.   What the techs can do is be trained in another career and like the national guard idea, you leave the regular job to go to the short outages that are paid well but known to be short like 2 weeks.  That is what the plants truly want to do to be profitable.  Otherwise all the other ideas are available now at a DOE site or house tech position, holidays, 401k, vacation, sick days etc.   The worker must conform to the job that is offered or do something else.   We can whine, complain, say it is not fair etc. but that is our capitalist system and you either learn to be flexible or leave.

[MeterSwangin]

 The worker must conform to the job that is offered or do something else.   We can whine, complain, say it is not fair etc. but that is our capitalist system and you either learn to be flexible or leave.

Bravo.  YOU get it.

Refreshing to see a guy unwilling to condemn the employers for just doing what makes good business sense.

[jrad]

What i don't understand about this forum.......is why there are so many "House People" who sit on this website
daily making posts about contract workers (who are only trying to look out for themselves) with concerns that
pertain to the individual working on the road? It seems to me that these "happy, hardworking, house people",
must have a lot of free time to concern themselves with such matters.

[Content1]

We still have other family members still traveling and they let us know what is going on.

[MeterSwangin]

What i don't understand about this forum.......is why there are so many "House People" who sit on this website
daily making posts about contract workers (who are only trying to look out for themselves) with concerns that
pertain to the individual working on the road? It seems to me that these "happy, hardworking, house people",
must have a lot of free time to concern themselves with such matters.

How can you tell who is house, on the road, or who has not actually swanged a meter in years? 

If you could tell, would it matter?  Respect all opinions, right?

[Brett LaVigne]

What i don't understand about this forum.......is why there are so many "House People" who sit on this website
daily making posts about contract workers (who are only trying to look out for themselves) with concerns that
pertain to the individual working on the road? It seems to me that these "happy, hardworking, house people",
must have a lot of free time to concern themselves with such matters.

I see what you are getting at, and I have wondered the same on several different threads that share a common theme about the travelers.

It's not that the house folks don't have points to make, it's more that the points can be a bit irrelivant coming from people that have not been on the road in a while. And I don't understand why some can display such a strong opinion when they haven't been there in so long.

I often talked about a particular southern CA plant up till recently. I suspect that my opinion of the place continues to be shared by many, but the fact is, it is coming up on the 3rd outage that I have not been there. So for that reason, I feel like I have reached the end of my opinions being relevant enough to comment on a thread about it. Seems fair to me.

So while I don't have any hard spots with people just because they are a house tech (that would be a bit silly and I'm not implying that you feel this way at all), I do see merit in your question.

[Brett LaVigne]

A very honorable position Brett.  But, while you have been absent for the past few outages and therefore feel your opinion does not merit sharing, the NRC has been there all along and continues to express concern about the performance at a particular southern CA plant.

Funny! I just posted this and then went to the thread where someone posted the latest NRC review of that plant...my tounge is still bleeding   I'm sure that Meterswangin would be all over me, so I will just read from the sidelines. I hope they get it together down there. I have talked a lot of S***, but I don't get any enjoyment out of reports like that. It's unhealthy for the industry as a whole.

Ok, sorry for being off topic...As you were.

[MeterSwangin]

Funny! I just posted this and then went to the thread where someone posted the latest NRC review of that plant...my tounge is still bleeding   I'm sure that Meterswangin would be all over me, so I will just read from the sidelines. I hope they get it together down there. I have talked a lot of S***, but I don't get any enjoyment out of reports like that. It's unhealthy for the industry as a whole.

Karma and kudos to you for lightening up on the plant-bashing. 

NRC grades are the most lagging of lag indicators.  A diesel hiccups, a valve slows...you report it.  NRC mounts an inspection, writes it up, you respond, there are meetings.  Months later you get gigged.  A year later they roll up all the little gigs and call it "crosscutting" and hit you harder.  A year later all the new management are busy fixing and changing everything, but the issues are are not "closed out" with the NRC until the laborious process runs a new cycle.

Plant can be 2-3 years up off the bottom and still be on the sh_t list

SONGS, by the way, is in NRC column 2.  Palo Verde hit column 4.

[Brett LaVigne]

Karma and kudos to you for lightening up on the plant-bashing. 

NRC grades are the most lagging of lag indicators.  A diesel hiccups, a valve slows...you report it.  NRC mounts an inspection, writes it up, you respond, there are meetings.  Months later you get gigged.  A year later they roll up all the little gigs and call it "crosscutting" and hit you harder.  A year later all the new management are busy fixing and changing everything, but the issues are are not "closed out" with the NRC until the laborious process runs a new cycle.

Plant can be 2-3 years up off the bottom and still be on the sh_t list

SONGS, by the way, is in NRC column 2.  Palo Verde hit column 4.

I worked Palo last fall. It was a tough outage to go to every day with a smile, that's for sure. They also have many changes to make.

Don't know about the most lagging of lag indicators, I guess that is one opinion. Anyway, the report looked pretty rough. Believe me when I say that I understand how positive change can take a long time. I was the designated process improvement Change Agent at a former job in a troubled production facility. It is a labor intensive, time consuming process. I wish SONGS well with it. It appears that there is still a tough road to travel before getting there.

[IPREGEN]

House people can offer the perspective of what it like to hire 50 have 5 no-shows, hear all the stories about why they are late and don't feel good. The processing of people through security and all the reasons why they don't have paperwork done, coupled with P**s Poor performance from the occasional tech and high end drama that brings down the group so you are no longer a first round pick and the recruiter is trying to be pleasant about it.

[desertdog]

House people can offer the perspective of what it like to hire 50 have 5 no-shows, hear all the stories about why they are late and don't feel good. The processing of people through security and all the reasons why they don't have paperwork done, coupled with P**s Poor performance from the occasional tech and high end drama that brings down the group so you are no longer a first round pick and the recruiter is trying to be pleasant about it.

And road techs don't see the same thing with house techs? There are always going to be top runners and bottom feeders. Some have union protection and the others... If your utility brings them back then maybe they aren't doing enough to attract the top runners.

[Content1]

I have something on subject here about improvements for rent-a-techs.   My jr. daughter, only 4 years in the business, went to Kewanee and is getting $20/hr!  I got that in the duke system my last outage as a Senior 2008!  They get $3/5 per  hr. bonus on top.   She, during the outage, will make more than double what I make as a house tech!  I am no longer the top wage earner in the family, yet I have been in the business 20 years total.   I say good for her and the other Juniors there, this business is not dead yet.

[IPREGEN]

And road techs don't see the same thing with house techs? There are always going to be top runners and bottom feeders. Some have union protection and the others... If your utility brings them back then maybe they aren't doing enough to attract the top runners.

The post was why house tech input belongs on the site. not about who stinks at the job. I've been on both sides, there are winners and losers on both sides

[MeterSwangin]

I have something on subject here about improvements for rent-a-techs.   My jr. daughter, only 4 years in the business, went to Kewanee and is getting $20/hr!  I got that in the duke system my last outage as a Senior 2008!  They get $3/5 per  hr. bonus on top.   She, during the outage, will make more than double what I make as a house tech!  I am no longer the top wage earner in the family, yet I have been in the business 20 years total.   I say good for her and the other Juniors there, this business is not dead yet.

Good for her, friend.  But this is a temporary situation.  In three years there will be a fraction of the positions available.

[hezabear]

All of the companies need to put the money were there mouths are. The big B always states that their employees are the best in the Nuclear Field. Then why don't they treat us that way.
Better health insurance
Short and long temp disability, This could be done thru Aflac
Better 401k
Sick Days
Vacation
The list goes on and on.
And then their is the pay A 5 year 3.1 Sr,. gets paid the same as 25 year 3.1
So Like I said if you say were the best then treat us like we are.
I am sure to catch Sxxt over this but this how I see things. Brad

[deicide666]

Jacking diem on a day turn around from one plant to another. If you are working for a company and just left a site and are going to strait to another, with one day in the middle (travel time) for the same dam company!! You are still away from home for them!!!!

[hezabear]

You must work for the Big "B". They do this all the time. Was told by one of their site supervisor make them about 2 million a year. See my earlyer post it is all about them not the workers in the field.

[Rennhack]

Was told by one of their site supervisor make them about 2 million a year.

If you believe that, you have absolutely no clue.

[hezabear]

M. was told this by more than one of the so called site supervisors, You do the math.
$85.oo a day times 2000 techs times times 10 =1.700,000.00 close to 2 million. Don't know if its true are not. But I do know they always cut you 1 day short when you come in and I don't care if you have 40 hours or more when you get laid off say on Thursday the keep the rest of the week. I've been laid off by the Big B on Saturday Morning going to other site on Monday and they will and do pull Saturday and Sundays Perdiem. Thats their way of doing business .So  maybe you need to get a clue.

[hoghunter]

I feel with being temps.we as tech must realize that the perfect world and wanting things such as better 401K,paid Insur. and others gripes I've read through this post will never happen.Hell even Micky-D's can't even do that.It is what it is and if we can't live that then maybe we need to find that dream company who will give more then they receave.I just think that road tech. working 40 Hrs away from shouldn't be punished for being sick, such as I was working 40hrs some back in spring and if I lost time for being sick I had to make up or lose 3 days PD. maybe this could be revamped a little. Also I would like to see the travel per mile be adjusted to the rising gas prices. We all have wants and gripes,but such is life.Suck it up deal with it and go on

[retired nuke]

The few times that I have been able to sit down and read a Utility - RAT contract, the perdiem was a straight pass thru. B doesn't get it from the utility unless you are working. The Utility determines if you worked enough (40 hours minimum usually) to get it paid to B. They stop paying it as soon as you leave. Most utilities pay if you complete 8 hours on your last day.

Oh, and as far as the other way techs are cheated - where B makes a bunch of money on interest by holding your pay for a week - most utilities are 60-120 days in arrears - they get billed, and the utility contract / procurement group pays that bill when they pay a bunch of others - after the outage is over. So the RAT co is actually fronting the pay, and getting reimbursed by the utility later. That's why bonuses are paid a month or two later - that's when the utility pays the RAT, and officially lets them know who / how much.

The above hassles were part of why being on the road got old....

[Rennhack]

HouseDad is 100% correct.

Heza Bear, there is no $2m, the contract companies can't/don't bill utilities for money they don't pay.  What money-saving utility that you know of would pay a company per diem that isn't being paid to the workers?  Why not bill the utilities for 200 hrs of work when the person only works 40 or 72?  If you only pay 5 days per diem, you can only bill 5 days per diem.

You supervisor Buddie has never seen a contract, and has no idea how this industry works.  He isn't telling you some official Bartlett secret, he is telling you his conspiracy theory.  It may be his own, or it may have been shared with him, just as you are sharing it.  You can tell it to the 30,000 people on this site, and they can all tell it to 30,000 more people.  It still doesn't make it reality.

[Chimera]

Travel pay is another site specific issue.  Some utilities pay travel pay both ways regardless of the time between the two outages.  Others only pay travel if you go home and/or had sufficient time (in their judgement) to go home.  I've had it happen where I received travel pay to home from one site and travel pay to the site from the next site even though there was only one day between.  However, on the identical return trip, I only received travel pay from one site.

As for the companies making money on the interest by delaying pay checks, NUMANCO's first contract (back in the Charlie Pierce days) was with Millstone.  After being awarded the contract, Charlie discovered that Northeast Utilities only paid once a quarter.  Charlie had to rush to the bank each week to refinance his fledgling company to meet his weekly payroll.  Only through time, perserverence and economy of scale do these rent-a-tech outfits turn a profit.

[Brett LaVigne]

The few times that I have been able to sit down and read a Utility - RAT contract, the perdiem was a straight pass thru. B doesn't get it from the utility unless you are working. The Utility determines if you worked enough (40 hours minimum usually) to get it paid to B. They stop paying it as soon as you leave. Most utilities pay if you complete 8 hours on your last day.

Oh, and as far as the other way techs are cheated - where B makes a bunch of money on interest by holding your pay for a week - most utilities are 60-120 days in arrears - they get billed, and the utility contract / procurement group pays that bill when they pay a bunch of others - after the outage is over. So the RAT co is actually fronting the pay, and getting reimbursed by the utility later. That's why bonuses are paid a month or two later - that's when the utility pays the RAT, and officially lets them know who / how much.

The above hassles were part of why being on the road got old....

I agree with a lot of this but I have an example, maybe it's the exception, but it happens. Working at a plant twice in the last couple of years we had a completion bonus. A nice one at that. The outage was over for nearly 8 weeks before I got that check. In fact, I was one of the last to leave as most others had earlier outages to catch. This check was delayed for nearly 10 or 12 weeks for some, both times I remember. I spoke with the plant management folks that actually see the billing and know what was paid and I was told that it is BS, the bill had already been paid and my contract company was obviously holding the money (in this case it was in the neighborhood of a couple hundred thousand dollars total for the group).

I am grateful that there are jobs that give a bonus and the wating for it is a minor inconvenience for me, but fair is fair and when you add up all of the things that could be improved...well, it's not hard to see why people feel a bit abused.

I can see why some think we get paid enough, or that a few shortcommings of a contract company aren't that big of a deal. I think that there is another important ingredient to this. And that is the incredible inconvenience this work can be. Being away from home and family for months at a time. I personally only see my wife and 4 year old daughter an average of 7 months/year. I am currently in Northern California and have not had any time off in 10 months, this is a good thing that I am working at a great job and I am grateful. However, it will have been a full year before I see my house again. By the way, that is a house that I still have to pay for and keep up while I am not there. I am not telling many of you anything, I am just making a point about what kind of extraordinary things you need to deal with and arrange in order to do this job. Is it really too much to ask for to get them to pay on time or pay fairly when it comes to things like travel, perdiem, a damn sick day here and there, affordable insurance or some combination of a few of those things. We are not in a "normal" industry and having a little better package than the day labor that Addecco supplies to production facilities with doesn't seem like too much to ask for.

I am currently a temporary additional for PG&E. I have worked Diablo a few times and now am at Humboldt Bay. I have seen what it is like for a company to go out of their way to recruit and keep the troops happy with a nice package. I wouldn't expect the same package from a contract company, that would be unrealistic. But even if they were to achieve 75% of what I have here, you would find nearly all of this complaining gone.

And that...is my opinion

[Eric_Bartlett]

M. was told this by more than one of the so called site supervisors, You do the math.
$85.oo a day times 2000 techs times times 10 =1.700,000.00 close to 2 million. Don't know if its true are not. But I do know they always cut you 1 day short when you come in and I don't care if you have 40 hours or more when you get laid off say on Thursday the keep the rest of the week. I've been laid off by the Big B on Saturday Morning going to other site on Monday and they will and do pull Saturday and Sundays Perdiem. Thats their way of doing business .So  maybe you need to get a clue.

After I got done laughing so hard I fell off my chair, I re-read your post and guess what - I laughed twice as hard!  I thought I had heard every hair-brained, crack-pot conspiracy theory there was - everything from "Bruce controls when and how long the plants shutdown for" to "Big Blue makes 300% profit off of us" - I admit those were good but your 2 million in billing for unpaid perdiem is one of the best I've heard.  Now believe me or don't - no sweat either way - we pay what we can bill for, pure and simple - payroll of course has a mark-up (as does any other vendors pay-roll) - perdiem and expenses are what they call a direct pass thru - we pay what we bill - no profit.  If you really think we'd jeopardize our contracts and our reputation by billing for unpaid perdiem and that we dont get scutinized by our clients on what we bill then you are seriously mistaken.


anyways thats all I will say on that, if you have any other good side splitters please don't hold back!

Take it slow, be safe...

Eric Bartlett