I found out the other day the plant I work at is closing. It's been in this town for 101 yrs. this month. I'll get layed off the 1st. of June. Just curious how many of you have lost your jobs in the last 6months or so.

 

Not yet but we were sat down for an emergency meeting! I'm a mechanic for the United States Postal Service. We fix everything from little trucks that come to your door to the big rigs. Now we were told they are closing half of Texas up to half of Minn. then straight across to the west cost to exclude cali cause there the pacific district! Now if you have over 6 years they can't lay you off from there but if all the shops close nation wide we will go to the processing centers and your walk in post offices. Then were the highest paid in the postal service. So if that happens and we go to the plants or post offices we get a pay cut so we can match theres and it will be 5 to 15,000 depending on your pay grade of a loss in pay. They are going to sub out all the work and toyota and nissan are going to buy up alot of old shops from the post office. Now if you have under 6 years they said they will write you a good guy letter. Now our shop has 90% of the guys under 6 years or 40 techs! So yea it's getting bad! Sorry to hear that.

 

Yeah , and there may not be permanent openings so you may have to start as a part time flex . If you change to a different union you will be at the bottom of the seniority list as far as vacations and job bidding go .

 

Wow. Thats the first time I've heard that and I'm a Postmaster. Do you work at a VMF? Our VMF is in TX and haven't heard any talk of it.

 

Where do you work? I am from Thompson(up by Forest City) originaly.

 

I think it took a little longer for it to start here in North Iowa, but it's starting to get bad. I know a lot of people that have been laid off in the past month. I'm glad that I have my farming to fall back on if I lose my job, it's not much but I can survive on it if I have to.

 

Self employed and may as well say I am laid off. Took a part time job at Fred Meyer's

 

I am losing my job with the mass transit system in St. Louis at the end of the month, I might be fortunate and have something new lined out but it's not a done deal yet.

 

i turn wrenches too, the only difference is i wont loose my job but i have no work and no pay. i think part of the problem for alot of peoples jobs are the " union " it has never been my right to have a job but yet a privelage. i have to rely on my company to have work for me to do as i am a commissioned employee. if these bigger companies cannot survive in the real world with todays economy i say **** on them. i can barely survive myself and the only one person that will ever help me is myself. only the strong will survive. so if a big company fails i bet there is another smaller company that has planned well and will be able to pick up the slack. so absolutely no offense to those that work for these said "failing" companies but you had to maybe see it coming and it might be time to tuck the tail and try to find work with a more sucessfull business.

 

Well im pretty lucky over here. I work as a flat rate technician so really if there is no work there is no pay for me. so they would have no reason to let me go cause i get paid by the job. but we are doing pretty good over here. its slowed down a bit but i mean its still that time of the season for us before it picks up after the holidays.

the corvette owners have all been booking their appoitments to get their cars ready for the summer months so really we don't have alot to worry about. as far as the dealer ship closing its all paid off for and we aren't loosing any money from costs for running the place so we should be ok.

end of march we will be in full running order getting cars ready for the summer before the july slump hits. but its like this every year so really we can't complain.

no as far the CAW and union line workers can go. I will not say anything further cause i will get in trouble. they get paid high hourly pay for screwing in nuts and bolts and complain about it. i could care less if they loose their jobs.

 

I am a maintenance tech at Holcim in Mason City.

 

Do you know anything about the St. Genevieve area ? The company I work for ( Holcim ) is opening a new state of the art , 903 million dollar plant there. Don't want to move but thinking about transferring if possible.

 

Sorry, don't know much about that area except that there's a ton of antique stores and tourist traps down there, and it's in the middle of the wine country.

 

sorry to hear that man, but yeah welcome to the club... ive been laid off from 2 different places in the past 5 months. hard times, and it needs to change quick..

 

What really blows is that we can lose so many men in one shot! I no the fleet manager really well in PA and he told me the same thing that he hadn't heard that at all either! So i have no idea what the heck is going on but my boss isn't the kind of guy to try to use scare tactics on us! When he spoke with a room full of men you could hear a pin drop! The same thing happend to me at the Treasury but i was able to get out and get into the post office before i was RIfed or transfered across country! When they told us what was happening at the treasury i had 2 weeks to go and it was either a job in cali or the street and the wife wasn't going to cali! So i wound up back in nc and she stayed there cause of the schools are so bad here. I have been trying to get a transfer for 4 years now and no luck!