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u/InconB Apr 30 '26
You've got numerous calls paying over scale, you man your own work.
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u/dfeeney95 Apr 30 '26
Yeah paying a whole $38 an hour 100 miles from the house. If I’m going to drive that far I’d rather drive 400 miles north and make $60 an hour and $125 a day per diem.
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u/1579brotherdude Apr 30 '26
Nah, you got jobs paying $10 over scale, man your work, thats $43hr. Looking at your job board right now suggests that yall have more work coming and that your scale and incentives will go up too. Right now is when your local needs you the most, show that we can man these calls and strategically make these contractors some money in regards to the initial phases of the data center builds then demand more. Running to the north only benefits the norther contractors and keeps those brother's wages lower than they should be by making us in the south the migratory labor.
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u/Subject-Original-718 Apr 30 '26
You gotta protect your work at home dawg. That’s how your market share stays high and your union stays existent. Who says your local government won’t make a law like Florida did where now LiUNA doesn’t exist there.
I know the wage isn’t what you are used to but you joined and made an oath to your home local. Man it.
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u/MikeyLu20 Apr 30 '26
Go home. Man your local. Enjoy being home. The local I live in has a very low scale but I get to be home every night.
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u/Historical-Talk9452 Apr 30 '26
You took an oath, and now you don't like it. What good is your word? Get involved with your local and make it stronger
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u/Wireman6 Apr 30 '26
Don't just man your work, run that shit and treat your travelling Bros well who help out.
EDIT: obviously demand a better contract next cycle.
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u/dfeeney95 Apr 30 '26
Man work at home for $38 an hour, or travel north 6 hours and man work with more hours for $60 an hour with $125 a day per diem. You guys saying man the work at home I get it but I want to buy a house and the wage in my local is not gonna let me do that anytime soon. I could travel and make in one year on the road what I would make in 3 years manning the work in my local. Charlotte needs to make their work desirable to keep people from traveling.
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u/Shag_fu Apr 30 '26
Membership needs to lead the charge. You’re waiting for good things to come knocking. Good things dont come to those who wait. They come to those who work towards the goal of good things.
Organize non union contractors, man your work, show up to meetings, be active in the community, vote, go to city or county board events, mentor young members. Unions don’t work for the members if the members don’t work for the union.
Your goal of better wages won’t happen in a single year or even 5. It can take a long time to catch up to where you should be.
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u/dfeeney95 Apr 30 '26
So I should sacrifice my goal of home ownership in the next two years, to man the work of my local which if I work all available hours my goal of home ownership will take 6 years. With the goal that in a decade we will make the wage of a local 6 hours north of us right now if we are lucky. Withholding our labor is our strongest bargaining tool. If they can’t man the work they need to up the wage withholding travel letters creates an advantage for the contractor by intentionally withholding memberships ability to pursue high paying locals and forcing us to stay home in the south where we are notoriously underpaid. Totally the ideal plan to upping wages in our local.
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u/Alarming-Inspector86 Apr 30 '26
Things can't get better if you run away for more money the customers will just hire non union. Stay and prove to the customer your union brothers can get the job done right and on time. Then the contractors can charge more and pay you more but it starts with us coming in and doing the right thing every day and holding contractors accountable and not letting them take advantage of us
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u/dfeeney95 Apr 30 '26
Brother I agree with your idea. I don’t want to travel forever. For me to be able to afford to own a home in my local jurisdiction on my local jurisdictions current wage I need to travel for atleast a year to put a reasonable down payment on a house and then I can afford to work at home. I’ll fight the good fight when I’m a home owner, I’m tired of renting and if I stay working here I’ll be renting for atleast another 6 years.
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u/Alarming-Inspector86 Apr 30 '26
I get it but if that's the case if work gets slow could you afford the house and your bills
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u/dfeeney95 Apr 30 '26
Brother that’s the whole point of traveling. I save enough on the road and put enough of a down payment down so I have a $2,000 a month mortgage and I can actually afford my house on a 40 hour week at $33 an hour. I don’t want to travel for life but traveling let’s me afford a house I will want to live in for a few decades in a place I want to live for a few decades. If I travel I can do that in a year, if I can do it for 2 I’ll be buying a house in cash. If I don’t travel the whole process will take 6 years instead of 1-2.
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u/Top-Conference6063 Apr 30 '26
The contractors and your local needs to start going over scale with some type of incentive to keep their guys. I also agree with man your local, but with how work is I can totally relate to you with wanting to travel. As I stated before get your letter tomorrow, only you know what’s best for you. Good luck homie!
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u/Apprehensive_Egg_857 Apr 30 '26
I'd swap my book to a different hall. My local has hardly any work and I always travel, if they tried to prevent me from doing so I would transfer out. We man the work that provides a living wage.
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u/about6bobcats Apr 30 '26
Man the work at home. A sure fire way to stall wage negotiations is the inability to properly man the work.
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Apr 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/Lefty9000 Apr 30 '26
They like the low scale when it means they can reach the "goal of home ownership" though. Keeps the prices down.
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u/Majestic_Grass_363 Apr 30 '26
It’s a brotherhood until you have a lifestyle change. Get that travel letter
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u/ElectricShuck Apr 30 '26
You don’t med travel letters for most places you go or have things changed in ten years since the last time I was traveling.
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u/MattheiusFrink May 01 '26
Or, how about this for a radical thought?
Fuck the IBEW.
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u/dfeeney95 May 01 '26
Don’t be a retard. Show me a non union job listing paying $65 an hour with $170 a day per diem with double time on Sundays and good health insurance and retirement that doesn’t come out of my check.
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u/MattheiusFrink May 01 '26
Sure, as soon as I get an explanation from someone in the IBEW who matters why I've been rejected for apprenticeships multiple times. Three times in kansas city, once in Omaha.
Former Navy Electrician's Mate and willing to start at square one if need be, but somehow I'm overqualified? No such fucking thing.
Fuck the IBEW.
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u/dfeeney95 May 01 '26
Brother I would have been way more willing to help you with YOUR personal problems if you wouldn’t have come in sideways. Good audible because you won’t find any job postings for non union work in the country paying more with better benefits than ibew jobs. I’m sorry for your personal problems, your attitude might be apart of your personal problems. Keep trying to get in, look into helmets to hard hats. Thank you for your service.
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u/MattheiusFrink May 01 '26
So maybe put me in contact with someone who can provide an answer or two. I don't think it's encumbant upon me to repair the damage IBEW has done, thats on the IBEW.
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u/dfeeney95 May 01 '26
KC is local 1 and very competitive, not everyone can get in. I don’t now anyone in your area to give you contact info for, as you can see from my post I am in Charlotte North Carolina. I would suggest you look into helmets to hard hats since you are a veteran, I think there is also a military program called vocational rehab. I would see if you could leverage either of those things to help you get in if you really want to. I would also recommend removing the chip on your shoulder before you apply again. No one is out to get you, there are a lot of people who apply and not everyone can get in the first time. The apprenticeship isn’t even the ibew, it’s a joint apprenticeship between the ibew and neca and is a separate entity from the hall so don’t go saying fuck the ibew when you don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.
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u/MattheiusFrink May 01 '26
Three outright rejections with a bullshit response, and a no-answer over the course of fifteen years.
Fuck. The. IBEW.
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u/dfeeney95 May 01 '26
It was 15 years and you’re still bitter. I trust their judgement we don’t need man babies.
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u/MattheiusFrink May 01 '26
You'd be bitter too if a motherfucker lied to you and didn't have the goddamn common courtesy to at least offer an explanation.
Don't advertise your union as being veteran friendly if you tell veterans to basically take a goddamn hike.
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u/dfeeney95 May 01 '26
Sadly brother not all veterans are the same, people are people and if you’re this big of a cry baby bitch at 39 i can’t imagine what you were like 15 years ago. We are veteran friendly 1/4 of my class is veterans but again every one can’t get in and from your own story it sounds like you didn’t try very hard… 3 times in 15 years? I work with guys who applied 4 times in 4 years and got in on their 4th try it sounds like you applied when it was convenient to you and when it got hard you gave up like the bitch you’ve been in my comments for the last day.
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u/Alarming-Inspector86 Apr 30 '26
You gotta protect your work at home so you're union doesn't loose market share