Originally Posted by
yoke jerker
yeah, yeah, yeah, ...that's english for BS... Look, no one said you have to give up benefits and 18k is absurd so get real.
are you a brownshirt? my friend should be getting his customary 8 weeks off in a row this time of year. he backs up two weeks off a month and takes 2 of his 6 weeks paid.... you guys have it rough.
Amazing he gets 6 weeks since 5 is the maximum and that's after some 20 years of service? I never said we have it rough, in fact I'm pretty happy here however don't confuse facts with fiction.
We can move our days off by bidding reserve for example which in general is 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. So if he has lets say 4 weeks of vacation and he makes sure that he's off the 2 weeks before his vacation and the 2 weeks after his vacation then he's off for 6 weeks. Sounds great, huh? However, that could also mean that prior to his extended time off or maybe after it (or both) he'll be away from home 4 weeks in a row. He sounds like he's pretty senior so I'm sure it wouldn't happen to him but have you ever been away from home 4 weeks in a row while at Pace?
Also, you're confusing our time off with our vacation. When I was at Pace seems like most of the time my schedule was something like 4 days on and 3 days off (could have changed since then). So basically on average we got 10 to 12 days off a month. If you bid reserve here you get 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off so basically you get ~15 days off, only a few days extra from where you stand. If you put those days back to back sure it looks like 'vacation' to you but it's the normal days off that you enjoy every 4-5 days while we do it every two weeks (if we bid 2 week periods).
Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy here but to ridicule someone elses position by implying he/she has it "so much better" only shows you're running out of arguments.
After all, I was where you are now not that long ago AND I felt the very same way about protecting our rights then as I do now. We have to make sure we don't outsource our profession because if we do, no one, including you will be safe. Unions are like lawyers, no one wants them until they need one.
In my opinion no one can compete against the American worker in a global economy because the US is known for innovation, knowledgeable workers and some very bright minds however it can only work if the competition is fair. Without the leverage some unions give us on that issue the 'global competition' would be more like a supermarket sale of US goods and services.
That's all I'm saying.