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01-14-2007, 11:44 AM
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Good morning to you also Carl.I'm glad to hear things are still ok in northern Ca.We also get very little residential work,its mostly city and burb commercial..alot of hotel work going on in Chicago now along with condo hi-rises going up every other block.We're going to give Sacramento a shot [wages are about $7.00 less] but the homes I think are more affordable than the bay area ,from what we've heard .
Bears -Chargers superbowl ...I hope so. No one here is too positive on a Bears win..we just dont know which Grossman will show up! 
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02-01-2007, 05:43 PM
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Good luck in Sac! I think you'll like it there. It is really a big city now and it is still growing. I just drove through there last weekend and saw a lot of stuff going up. I believe you would be able to get a union job there.
You might want to move to the west side of town or the Davis area so you will be closer to San Francisco and Oakland just in case... How bout those plucky Bears?
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02-18-2007, 10:43 PM
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Interesting about the unions. I work for a major newspaper here in Southern California. In the 15 years I have worked here, there has been several pushes to get a union in the pressroom.
Last time they tried several years ago, the company decided to group us mechanics in with the pressroom, because they knew that we would be a bunch of "NO" votes (about 26 of us). It worked for the company, but even without our maint. dept, the union still would not have made it, but now we (mecahincs) are stuck being grouped with a printing union if it ever comes in. I don't doubt what unions have done for the nation over the years, but knowing how the company I work for now is, it wouldn't be good for us. If a union ever made it in here, by law they would have to bargain in good faith, but I can tell you this company would bargain "forever", and in the meantime all of our wages and benefits would be frozen. So yes, in some cases a union is good, but everyone needs to look at the big picture before voting one in where none currently exists. I already make a good wage for a skilled mecahinc ($30/hr), so to me a union isn't going to help much. I already have medical/retirement etc.
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02-22-2007, 06:09 AM
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I used to work for an Albertsons store in southeast idaho. I had a pretty good wage:$12.87/hr for the idaho falls area. We had some issues though with the manager pushing every last bit of energy out of everyone to get a bigger bonus on his check. He started cutting my hours from 8 to 6 to 5 then eventually 4 hours a day but expecting the same amount of work. Eventually we got tired of it and one woman called the union. Albertsons then brought in 2 people from thier corporate office to tell us that unions are pretty much a waste and are dishonest. The employees of the store then mostly voted against it because they believed that the union had no power to stand up to albertsons. It got back to me around the same time that partly due to a possible threat of us going union and the store needed a cosmetic remodel they were laying off everyone and selling the store. The store closed. It later reopened by a local chain offering the ex-albertsons employees as much as $3an our less... take it or leave it.
When I was 15 I got a job for a place called advon distributers. They would get contracts with qvc to ship products like Ms. Batemans baking butter or send out junk mail for big companies. They started me out at a training wage of somewhere around $4.75 an hour. I gave 110% and did a great job for them. After around 90 days I found myself off the schedual. Come to find out they were hiring high school aged kids and some adults at the training wage then once they legally had to pay them 5.15 an hour they were laid off. This was 8 years ago. My brother was the only kid that stayed with them for $5.15 an hour. He wouldnt work schedualed shifts though. He maintained thier computer network, built thier computers, and fixed anything computer related. They would have him come in at a moments notice, have him work for 45 minutes and then send him home with a wopping $3-4 for that day. Funny thing was the owner was once a big pusher for labor unions and now hates thier existance since he is on the other end of the totem pole. This is why idaho needs strong labor unions. I feel the attitude here seems to be "appreciate what you got cuz your barely worth it". Too many buisnesses trying to save themselves rich. They do it by cutting labor instead of trying to make it more efficient in other parts of the buisness. Employee moral is dropping and so is customer service.
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02-25-2007, 02:16 PM
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Enjoyed reading your posts, everyone! I lived in Boise from '94-'96 when I was stationed at Mountain Home AFB (50 mi. E on I-84) My German-born wife and I really enjoyed living in Boise and gave a good hard look at staying after I retired. I had always wanted to get into trucking, so my wages probably wouldn't have been much different anywhere I went (all the large truckload carriers are non-union but I feel that TL wages would be a LOT less but for the Teamsters...)
We saw that teacher pay was below average for the U.S. and my wife got a suprise when she applied for the German teacher position at one of the high schools (My wife was teaching German at Boise State at the time and has made language acquisition her specialty) The principal told her that he'd love to have her but that the parents "wouldn't go for a foreigner teaching their kids...") We found Boiseans generally very nice, if somewhat on the conservative side. (Although I'm not sure that a continued influx of outsiders won't change that) We found the city VERY livable and, if money weren't an issue, might even consider a return some day. We currently live in the Dayton, OH area and have the same mixed feelings about unions that many Americans have. They've been good for many things, including enabling Americans to afford the comfortable life that they helped provide to this nation. We're seeing GM, Delphi and other large area employers struggle with downsizing, layoffs and foreign competition. We definitely need a stronger (and smarter) union presence to keep American workers from living like their Third-World counterparts... BTW, I enjoyed shopping at Albertson's when we lived in Boise so much so that I wrote them a letter when we were leaving Idaho. Delivering to Albertson's as a truck driver, is a completely different experience. Albertson's, Wal-mart (and most large retailer warehouses) ranks as truck driver's least favorite consignees. Walmart and Albertson's rank at the top of "Worst Places To Deliver" every year in trucking surveys...
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02-25-2007, 04:24 PM
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IF you don't mind me asking, why is Albertsons and Wal-Mart the least favorite places to deliver to? I am thinking about getting my CDL, and was just curious about this. 
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02-26-2007, 02:39 PM
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Quote:
 Actually, I LOVE driving a big truck and have been at it for 10 years now. Most large retail warehouses (especally grocery warehouses) are very inflexible on arrival time (but don't mind keeping you waiting hours for a door...) and they frequently make you either hand unload or hire their "lumper" service to unload (many carriers reimburse the driver or directly pay the lumper)Couple of quick pieces of advice: All any school is going to teach you is how to passs the CDL exam. The best (and cheapest) instruction is through community colleges or other public vocational training programs. Some carriers offer "free" training but will make you an indentured servant to pay back the tuition. Better to pay for your own training, if possible, so that you have flexibility in case you don't like your company or even find that trucking's not your cup of tea. DO NOT ENTER INTO ANY KIND OF TRUCK LEASE OR PURCHASE UNTIL YOU HAVE A GOOD FEEL FOR THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY!!! There's SO many ways to get in over your head in trucking... An excellent source of information and other trucking resources is the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association. We're the only real organization that looks out for the rights of truck drivers and small business owner/operators. www.ooida.com John, if you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM. Best of luck!
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02-26-2007, 04:22 PM
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 That is really good to know about the community colleges and vocational programs. I was going to pay my own way through school, as like you said, you don't want to get locked in with a company that sux. I'll have to see what programs are offered through my local community college.
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03-01-2007, 07:32 PM
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My theme song
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03-01-2007, 08:19 PM
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Am I missing something?
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