I wonder why I pay dues

Tuesday the new contract came up for vote here in Atlantic City. Now every union Stage hand in AC is walking funny.

We took a nine dollar pay CUT! from 37/hr to 28/hr.. with no raises for the next three years. This is actually less than what I started at 10 years ago. We also lost our ability to collect overtime for working more than 8 hours in a shift. Now we have to wait till we hit 40 to get OT.

The only good part of the contract was that we got control of the call system back from Local 68, the Operating Engineers Union. Now all stage hands are part of the IA (IATSE 917). This had been a bone of contention since 917 was formed 20 some years ago.

But really.. the vote was 2 to 1 in favour of the new contract.. with the threat of a lock out and replacement of all stage hands if we did not vote for it. What is the point of being in a Union? We all know the Casinos are still making money hand over fist.. they just used this economy to stick it to us. I would not even mind it if this meant that they would put more shows in (as it would be cheaper) but we know they are going to keep to the status quo... so instead, if I work 40 hours.. I take almost $250 dollars home less a week.

would you rather have 250 less per week (sucks) or have no dollars at all (really really sucks)?

maybe a pay cut was needed, but the OT thing sucks, i remember getting hosed on 2 week pay periods at compUSA, they'd work me 48 one week, then cut back my hours the next week so i didn't get OT.

mad_machine wrote: We took a nine dollar pay CUT! from 37/hr to 28/hr.. with no raises for the next three years. This is actually less than what I started at 10 years ago. We also lost our ability to collect overtime for working more than 8 hours in a shift. Now we have to wait till we hit 40 to get OT.

I'm not trying to provoke you, and your deal does sound like a step down. I'm sorry about that.

BUT:

I work in a professional field. I've got a Master's Degree (7 total years of college) in my specialty followed by 22+ years of experience in my career.

I would NORMALLY be making $38 an hour in a regular year, and my salary is decent for my profession. I get no overtime pay at all. Most weeks I put in a regular 40, but when deadlines hit, it can easily be 48 or even 60 hours a week.

And that's leaving out the $20,000 pay cut I'm accepting this year (or about $10 an hour). I'm still working those hours, just for free. I may get that money back at the end of the year, I may not - depends on business.

I'm just saying.

Sucks - Straight 2,080 hours a year cuts $18,720 a year.

Now you need to work 10+ hours a week "over-time" to make that all back. Do you have stories of the one stagehand who worked a ton of over-time to clear $150,000?

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07-20/news/ct-met-orland-fire-salaries-20110720_1_fire-district-fire-department-overtime

I know I'm being a jerk by saying this, but you might want to consider not publicly complaining about being paid $28 an hour. I'm a college graduate with several years experience in a field that's hurting almost as badly as the casino industry and I'd have to consider a job that paid half that.

BTW, the point of being in a union was to get paid $37 an hour for the last several years while everyone else had to get fired and like it.

Josh wrote: I know I'm being a jerk by saying this, but you might want to consider not publicly complaining about being paid $28 an hour. I'm a college graduate with several years experience in a field that's hurting almost as badly as the casino industry and I'd have to consider a job that paid half that. BTW, the point of being in a union was to get paid $37 an hour for the last several years while everyone else had to get fired and like it.

Yes, $40/h for non-educated labour... that's how much a RN earns up here in Canada at the TOP of their pay scale.

Hell, I only earn $24/h and pay WAY more taxes than you guys could ever dream of (and probably have twice the cost of living expenses as food/rent is literally twice as expensive up here) and I went to college. Just got a raise today though, so I guess I shouldn't complain

Josh wrote: I know I'm being a jerk by saying this, but you might want to consider not publicly complaining about being paid $28 an hour. I'm a college graduate with several years experience in a field that's hurting almost as badly as the casino industry and I'd have to consider a job that paid half that. BTW, the point of being in a union was to get paid $37 an hour for the last several years while everyone else had to get fired and like it.

i'm gonna have to go ahead and +1 this. sure, a pay cut sucks, but what's the hardest thing you do as a regular part of your job? are you curing cancer up there in the casino?

just to put in perspective:

$10 hr x 40hrs x 50 wks/year = 20k/year gross

so..20/hr comes to 40k/year, and 28/hr is 56k granted 38/hr comes to 76k/year, but i started at less than 20/hr equivalent after finishing undergrad, and i'm not yet making 28/hr (granted only 4yrs in) in an industry where companies are making "obscene profits" according to some.

so, while the pay cut is not great, its still better than a lot of people

I have a degree... just not in theatre. I have a communications degree in Broadcasting.. but unless I want to live in Philly or NY, it's impossible to make a living doing that down here.

now before people think I make 76,000 a year... last year was my best year yet.. at $42,000 gross. I typically only work 20 to 30 hours a week.. and unlike a lot, do not get any benefits.. everything comes out of my pocket.

NYC (IATSE 1) and Chicago (IATSE 2) are the only places that make more money than us... but they also work a lot more than we do. I am typically idle mon, tues, and wed, and most of thursday and sunday

mad_machine wrote: I have a degree... just not in theatre. I have a communications degree in Broadcasting.. but unless I want to live in Philly or NY, it's impossible to make a living doing that down here. now before people think I make 76,000 a year... last year was my best year yet.. at $42,000 gross. I typically only work 20 to 30 hours a week.. and unlike a lot, do not get any benefits.. everything comes out of my pocket. NYC (IATSE 1) and Chicago (IATSE 2) are the only places that make more money than us... but they also work a lot more than we do. I am typically idle mon, tues, and wed, and most of thursday and sunday

So you bring in $42k a year working 3 days a week. Not too shabby.

So Architecture isn't a real degree now?

MM, 4 days off a week is a far better benefit than I've ever received at a job :).

I didn't mean that you don't deserve to be compensated well, or to demean those without degrees, etc, I just questioned the wisdom of looking for sympathy from a public who is largely worse off than you in their employment situations.

I bet your Union leader(s) is still making they same they did. You may be a "union", but it's still run by a few elites that can care less about your income. So that's why you are paying union dues- to pay for your leader's excessive salaries and pay for the lobbyists that make unions powerful.

racinginc215 wrote: And as for the Degree holders who believe they are entitled to make more money then "non educated labor" well not our fault you picked that Liberal Arts degree.

I didn't get a Liberal Arts degree. I have a Master of Architecture - a technical degree. Hell, for another year of graduate school, I could have been a doctor.

mad_machine wrote: last year was my best year yet.. at $42,000 gross. I typically only work 20 to 30 hours a week.. and unlike a lot, do not get any benefits.. everything comes out of my pocket.

I don't get benefits either. Well, let me say this: my normal $80k/year salary includes the extra they pay me so I can buy insurance through my wife's employer. My employer doesn't offer any benefits. If she loses her job I'm SOL. Like I said, I just took that $20k/year cut... but my insurance costs sure as hell didn't go down by 25%.

DILYSI Dave wrote: So you bring in $42k a year working 3 days a week. Not too shabby.

This. You consistently have Monday through Thursday off? Sounds like an easy opportunity for a second job to me. Or a lot of available wrenching time. Either way, the loss of a golden goose sucks, but some things just ain't gonna last forever. Looks like this is more of a return to reality than anything else.

I make less than you did before your pay cut and I have two BS degrees, one in engineering and one in physics, plus about 6 years in the field + 5 years of co-op. Sounds like you were getting paid very very well beforehand and now not so much.

I'm not seeing an issue, you're still getting 28 bucks an hour.

You may be damn good at your job and deserve the higher rate. But I can also assume you have quite a few co-workers that didn't/don't deserve as much as you because they suck. But because you are all in a union, you all get paid the same. Unfortunately that goes both ways. All those slackers that were riding on hard worker's coat tails, are now dragging you down with them. Unions can't be all pros without some cons.

My wife, with a masters degree, 14 years of teaching experience and figuring her wages on her contracted hours (not the ACTUAL hours she works) she doesn't even make $30 an hour. That's after 5 years of college, 6 months of student teaching, 14 years of busting her ass, then going BACK to school, while working, for another 2 years.

The wife's union the last 3 years took pay freezes and cuts to keep everyone in the district employed while the school district cut everything that was not essential to stay afloat. She hasn't had a raise in 3 years, will likely at LEAST be 4, but they did what had to be done to keep their jobs. Her cut 3 years ago was "only " 5%, but the added 6% increase in health insurance made that a double digit cut.

And you're bitching about it? Um.... what I have to say about that is not something that can be printed on a site such as this and you probably wouldn't want to read it anyway.

$28 an hour for part-time work?

SWEET!

Wow, what a bunch of sour grapes in this thread.

I'm completely with Datsun1500 on this one.

It can't feel good to have your employer say basically we value your work 25% less than we did yesterday no matter what the rate happened to be, and with a crappy economy and no shortage of folks in worse condition, it doesn't draw much in sympathy either. The question is what do you want to do about it? You can suck it up, cut some costs and go on, spend some extra time finding replacement income, Move to NY or Chicago or figure out an alternate income source not just for the lost earnings but the whole deal.

Screw this BSME stuff, I'm quiting and becoming a Union Stagehand..

What is cost of living where you are compared to the rest of the country? $42k doesn't necessarily sound like a lot. Or it might sound like a ton. I'm really not sure.

Datsun1500 wrote: Regardless of what he makes per hour he just took a 25% pay cut. I am sure everyone here would complain about a 25% pay cut. It does not matter what anyone else makes/does not make 25% is a huge amount.

Ummm, I personally took a 25% pay cut about 4 months ago, and it never even occurred to me to come here and bitch about it.

And I'm working full time for 25% less money now. He's got 3 totally open days a week to make up his shortfall.

Color me not very sympathetic.

So now union jobs are just like the rest of the population's jobs?

GrantMLS wrote: So now union jobs are just like the rest of the population's jobs?

Not until they're performance based...