re: Do blue collar guys think that they're inherently tough??

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I would take a demotion so I could sign my check??

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I forgot this is the OT, where the bosses do the field work and the idiots stay inside and pay them..

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Because you were just a plant worker, so they never put you in charge...?

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Perhaps you are thinking of the plant manager's position. How many people reach that position. Only 6 while I was at that plant. I've remained in touch with 3. We all retired in our mid 50s. They made more per hour after working their way up the ladder, no small fete. We all retired with similar $s. I kept up with them by spending a few minutes of my spare time making trades in the stock market.

As for the check signer, they worked for someone lower on the ladder than I was ... and they had a degree ... which was/are pasty white pencil necked geeks that can't even afford a truck.

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We all retired in our mid 50s.

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You're over 50........

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Those motherfrickers don't have to work nearly 70 hours IN THE PLANT a week to make six figures. They are paid so much fricking premium pay for bullshite and they milk the system to hell and back(eg. buddies fake sick on planned days and get the other one called in to make double time). 

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my plant worker friends and family seem conflicted. On the one hand, they want people to think they are salt of the earth hard working Americans. On the other, they have a chip on their shoulder that drives them to brag about how much money they milk from their employers without doing any work. Sounds like welfare queens to me.

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This thread has been fantastic reading. Thanks, fellas.

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They always are. I always love the responses by people who "know" operators.

A good decade here.

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So. La. doesn't average much over 40 hours/wk. My normal wk was about 48 which is easy to do on a 12 hr day. O.T. was usually pretty easy and only took away from time & $ spent on hobbies.

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Exactly. That's the funniest thing. Most people don't realize that a plant guy who works 4 x 12's gets 8 hours OT automatically b/c it's 8 hours over 40.

If he works a 16 hour day he gets DT for the 4 hours over 12.

Hmm... So you work 55 hours in 4 days and you have 4 days off and make 100k in most plants.

That's union contract though.

Sunday pay, callout pay, holiday pay, are also premium pay triggers.

My absolute fave is how callouts work. If you're called out and are on your way to plant and someone else shows up, you get 4 hours call out pay at DT just to go the frick back home. WTMF is that about.

frick a union.

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Did you work in an office environment, or always out in the elements..?

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Now retired but early on I spent more time outside, maybe 1/2 of any day. As I moved up I would spend less time outside and most of that arranged around the weather conditions. Comfort was a concern but the thought of always working in a controlled environment didn't appeal to me. I was more interested in money.

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maybe 1/2 of any day. As I moved up I would spend less time outside

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So you became the pencil pushing geek...?