Especially that amount of time in physical work like construction is tough. I used to work in a bank and had not more than 39 hours per week, and never worked on weekends. Yeah i can see there must be a lot projects where guys who make the plan calculate low costs and finish it early so you have to work longer. It's tough if that is the situation for a long time. How long you been doing this? Where i live we have strong unions who trade for less hours per week. Even in the industry you see a lot of contracts between union and company that contain only like 35 hours per week. Some partys are even demanding a 4 day week of work..you guys don't have much vacation per year do you? read sth about sometimes only 10-15 days per year..i always thought spanish sounds nice but i am bad in learning languages. What does mi vida loco mean in english?
Didn't see this until now. Actually had the night off bc we're getting a little snow in Boston (1-1.5 feet lol) Fell asleep the time usually take a nap and didn't wake up.
So I'm in local 22 which covers most of Boston. It's actually one of the better labor unions in the country tbh. Just under $40 per hour and we get a small raise every year or two that goes in our check or annuity. Our annuity is 8 something right now. 8.60-8.80 around there. So every hour we work we get that put in a fund for when we retire. Every thousand hours you work you get a pension credit ($100 per month) so the idea is to get 20-30 years (2-3k per month on top of social security) and again your annuity which can be could be anywhere from 200k-250k for 20 years and 300-450k for 30 years. Thats where OT comes in play and you can rack up the money.
I've been in for 8 years, fortunate to have 8
good years where I have 8 credits.
Our benefits our really good. Dental, medical... You're paying almost nothing most of the time if not nothing. Blue/Cross. I mean I never went to college so I consider myself lucky. 30-35 free chiropractor visits. Like 15-20 free massages.
It's tough. Right now there's so much work in Boston, even with Covid that companies and the unions are really on the same page in terms of work, work, work. And like you said companies will factor in "Hey I can pay these guys OT and work them 10-12 hours a days for 6 months and save 50-100K as opposed to a 40 hour work week for a year and half". So the workers just ride the wave. I have no life but I'd never be able to make 100K doing anything else. Granted laborers kind of max out around 110-115K unless you're a foreman or steward. So we'll never be rich rich but most of us are meatheads and lucky to have this.
If I was advising a young person that isn't
the brightest bulb but a hard worker. Not afraid to get dirty. A little initiative and creativity. Get in a trade. I know people that went to really great schools but are struggling bc its very hard to separate yourself
after school. Flashing a degree isn't enough. You're competing against Harvard, Brown, Yale, MIT etc so again it's a jungle and can be tough for some.