now i have one question for you ERIC.why did BARTLETT feel the need to offer their employees a significant raise right before the scheduled election? last question ERIC, why can southern company pay NPUA members at those outages 35/hr (which is what started this whole election process anyways) and the best BARTLETT can offer in their new compensation is still 3/hr less than what the NPUA members were getting? p.s. ERIC you really don’t have to answer those questions. i already know the answers:)
Hello FRANK, long time no talk to. Even though I try not to respond to antagonistic posts, I will make an exception for this one as there are many individuals out there that just want the truth so here it is and as always take it or leave it, your choice.
1st question "
why did BARTLETT feel the need to offer their employees a significant raise right before the scheduled election? Answer, we have proposed many times over the past couple of years to increase wages at SNOC that never came to fruition. After this past Spring Season we decided to try again and this time we are being taken seriously. Our rate increase proposals were put in prior to us ever even knowing y’all would be filing a petition down there.
as for your second question
"last question ERIC, why can southern company pay NPUA members at those outages 35/hr (which is what started this whole election process anyways) and the best BARTLETT can offer in their new compensation is still 3/hr less than what the NPUA members were getting? Answer, when we try to renegotiate rates with any client we of course always try to go as high as possible to increase the technicians overall compensation package as much as possible. But as you know we don’t control the purse strings, the client does. Your answer is the same as the answer to why couldn’t Bartlett match the rates that were being paid last spring? Because it is out of our control. Would i3 pay more than they could bill? Doubt it. Would Spectrum pay more than they could bill? Doubt it. It’s called Business 101, FRANK. If we can’t bill it, we don’t pay it. I’m sure that is common practice for any company in this or any other business, you pay what you can bill, if you cant bill it, you don’t pay it unless of course you are looking to spend more than you make and when companies do that they go the way of so many others like ARC & IRM.
So, FRANK I do believe you when you stated the following “ERIC you really don’t have to answer those questions. i already know the answers” I believe that you already knew the answers but I wanted to make sure that the rest of the interested parties out there knew them also and realize there is no nasty practices in play like you insinuate.
I have posted this time and time again. Union or Non, it doesn’t matter – we staff both. It all comes down to the more we can pay, the more a tech can make, the more a tech can make the more likely they will stay in the business and the more likely that new techs will get into this business, the more that stay and get into this business, the more likely we can staff our commitments. The better we staff the more work we get, the more work we get the better chance we have of giving technicians gainful employment. Now for the greedy side – the more we can pay the more we can bill, the more we can bill the more we make. Its very simple, once again Business 101.
Anyways I feel I’ve ranted on long enough and addressed both of your questions FRANK. You may want to try being less adversarial in the future, but my advice is like my answers to your questions, take it or leave it, your choice. Good luck to you in your endeavors.
As always I hope y’all are having a safe and enjoyable summer.
Take it slow,
Eric