OK. I am in New England. Weather is good right now. We have work, we pay fair wages, benefits. Supposedly economy sucks, and no one has a job, right? We can't get laborers. Up until last year, we would get college kids home for vacation in the summer, and always had people asking for full time. Now they just want intern jobs at insurance companies. We aren't asking them to drive a truck, run a machine, just stop traffic or run the old PH shovel. The people we have on board have all been there for years, but we can't get any laborers. What up with that?
everyone wants the easy jobs...or they want to jump right into the operators seat
We have the same problem. Move from state to state at least once per year and the headache of finding decent labor almost makes it worthwhile to pay travel and keep the same labor. I don't know what's wrong with some people these days but I started at the bottom and much better for it. Too much instant gratifcation as seen on TV I guess.
Understood, but I would rather work on a job site for 20 an hour than flip burgers for 7.
Learn a little spanish and you'll be all set. Gave up on American labor years ago
We tryed mexican labor here in louisiana they are just like all the rest, some good and some bad.
i have the same problem here on long island. get a guy to show up for a week gets the first pay check and never here from them again... its all college kids who only need a few bucks and dont wanna work. most of them will flip burgers in the a/c for the 7$. its getting to be a pain. i dont know about where you guys are, but the mexican labor here is 120$ a day cash (8 hours) plus lunch and transportation. what can you do.
Mexican labor will cost you quite a bit more than Americans but they are worth it.
Not even going to address the wrongness of that.
We do try to stay away from ethnic sterotypes and commentary here at HEF. I do think it's fair to say that immigrants in general may bring a strong work ethic with them to anyplace they relocate. It's why they've bothered to chase opportunity outside of their native lands. That's what made America great in the first place, isn't it?
Makes me wonder what made Australia Great Mate!.......All my ancestors came her on a free ticket...you know, the Governor's pleasure
Cropduster where are you located ? In southern Part ? One thing about New England - drive 5 min. and the weather is different. Yesterday is the first day this month that did not rain hard at least part of the day. By the fifth of the month we had already recieved monthly average, and right now are tied with the fourth all time yearly record. Should be easy to break with four more months to go. Work ethics ( and peoples Att.) have changed a lot since I entered work force. Back then if you were not in hospital employers gave you major att.- Now a dentist app. for the kid is considered a good reason for a day off. So not surprising they take easy over money
Well, it just makes a very harsh criticism of the English legal system back then, that they could misjudge so many fine and hardworking individuals and punish them so unjustly. (Either that, or it's a real feather in the cap of His Majesty's penal system, that they could turn such a bunch of rif-raff into solid citizens...) :cool2
Well how can I raise mischief then?:cool2
Just hit up a Home Depot and pick up your day labor.......
***?????? Me either. Seems like I STAY pissed off lately (sigh):Banghead
I hate to say it but people have become complacent and believe they DESERVE all the benefits of the american dream. I believe they saying is..."the pursuit of happiness". To me that means it must be earned. But lately it seems that if you can fill out the application and show to work on the first day it should be given out like candy on halloween. If you're lazy fired. I have taken a harder line in recent times and have much less patience for this "I'm owed the easy money" attitude. I'll glady run the revolving door even if it means I have to spend more time training and "hovering" to get and keep good people.
I've asked my sons friends if they wanted a job for the summer paying them good money, teach them a thing or two, but when you tell them "yeah, be down the shop at 6 to pick the tool truck up and drive to the job." They back down, even though I'd be paying them for that hour. Kids are spoiled these days, when I was that age all my friends were in construction.
That's crazy. When I was a kid I helped a friend and his dad break up a driveway, mow lawns and helped another friends family demo and remodel their house. Oh did I mention I got paid NOTHING for that? It was fun and educational, the little turds now want nothing to do with learning, cause it's cool to be a fool it would seem.
lol every time i went to a company i had to prove my self as a laborer first ,and most of the time it was with operators with no feel or grade percetion
Yup, everyones spoiled. If you want good guys, you have to keep the ones you've got. Most of my guys have been with me for 10+ years. I call the hall to get guys for a job and if they work and prove themselves then I keep them, if not I get rid of them at the end of the job. In todays economy you can't have guys who don't want to work on your payroll. Hard enough to make money as it is competing against guys who don't pay the rate and cut corners.
when you have bills to pay sometimes you have to give up the seat for the shovel
I've worked landscaping since I graduated high school. I have used tractors, skid steers and track loaders but have had a hard time finding a site work company to hire me as a laborer.There are some good size companies in the Harrisburg PA area that I have applied to. Next month I will be taking heavy equipment operations training so I hope I can acquire some base level skills to help get my foot in the door so to speak.Has anyone had any particular luck in finding companies to hire them as laborers in PA?
Mikef and curly you hit the nail on the head I went to school to be a surveyor and when I was done, it was 9 an hour as a surveryor to start or 19 as a grade man as a laborer. Hard work but worth it all, not to mention I was more interested in the earth moving part of it anyway. I see less and less new hires joining the ranks of the laborers, and I will say it has really kept me busy at the company I am with but in the long run it's bad for all the companies. Paul local 563
Sounds like your union. If so thats one of the problems. From your postings you sound like a guy I would have liked working for growing up in framingham. But I always refused to join the union. Never liked the idea of kissing ass just to get out on a job. Especially since jobs were a dime a dozen.
I fail to see what the "problem" here is.... I'd assume Mikef87 was simply saying it is to his benefit he can send a slug back and get someone else who wants to work without the issues of actually hiring and firing. I've worked for both companies (union and nonunion) each has their problems. I work with plenty of guys who abuse the union and they are more then likely the ones that give us a bad name.
I have as well. Worst I ever met was a guy that hated a scab that crossed the line because his kid was dying and he needed the medical insurance to pay for the life saving procedure. And on a related note to the main subject of laborers. I am working as one currently doing one heck of a garbage job, picking clay off the belt. Not alot of fun and boring as heck and definitely a bad job, but it has to be done. The other guy walked off the job and considering the luck we've had with other laborers doing easier jobs I am going to say nobody wants to do the *hit jobs, they all want the gravy work. I'm only 29 and when I see guys near my age walking off a job because it's not fun it just disgusts me. Our current dozer man started out doing my job and well now he runs the dozer so it does payoff eventually.
Becuase I haven't met a union yet I liked, thats the problem. Maybe it's differant were you are, although I doubt it. But with the unions around were I grew up it wasn't what you knew or could do it was who you blew. That was the construction unions. There was also a bunch of sniffiling whinning babys that worked at the gm plant in town. Always complaining about not enough this not enough that wha wha wha. Yet they did the most brain dead a monkey can do job, but they were never happy with what they were getting (which was considerable $$$ and bennys). Probably why there is no longer a gm plant there.
I second the Home depot. There are a minimum of 10 mexicans standing around my closest HD any week day. They stand there waiting for someone to offer a job.
HD Labor How do you know what country they are from?
Maybe some of you guys should try to find help. Ads in paper, craigslist.org, ETC. Instead of just going to the nearest HP and picking up some.....never mind
Its getting to the point where I dont believe that people want to hire whites for labor positions, because its becoming the preception that whites dont wanna work. Ive been laid off since August, and I have called about many labor jobs (mostly at local horse farms) and I never hear back ANYTHING. I mean, clean the stalls, cut the grass, whack the weeds, maybe drive a small tractor here or there..... I must be qualified, right? (Retorical question)
I think it also has to do with cheaper labor.
Well when the add says $12/hour, im not really expecting to get much more than that.......
Ok my bad:beatsme
Damn you guys need to come to O'll Cali for laborers, Home Depot, 7-11 any street corner that has a taco truck, But none of them want to work for under 15 bucks an hour.... But it isnt that kids these days are lazy the have never learned to understand the meening of PRIDE in the quality and perfesionalism they are to do a job. AAh this subject just pisses me off any way because no matter what i've done or where ive worked ive always been thrown to the wolves to prove myself.
I tend to want to agree with your perception of young people. I am still being brought up, and the way my dad sees it, the only way to get to the top, is to build your way there. My dad has us work with our gardener, a black african of course, but i can never moan. Not that I ever want to. Last year our school told us to come with some spades and forks to load bags of compost for the principals garden, and i have never seena lazier bunch. They started to moan after filling one bag between three, and man, did I feel pissed. Altough there were some pretty big guys there, they had no interest in loading the bags onto the bakkie, let alone filling them! Another thing that irritated me, was that they simply had no idea that compost is not dirty, let alone how to use a spade. If you can't use a spade, you can't do anything else! Cheap labour: There used to be a tog labour system here, ie: unemployed people from the rural areas, usually black, would line up at the store closest to the main road out of the townships, and wait for a farmer or contractor to come and load a dozen or more up and take them to work on their jobs. In the cities, there were tog labour signs by the bus stops and railway stations, for blacks and whites. Nowadays, that just don't happen any more. Granted, black labour is still the cheapest option, but they are the only ones willing to go out and get a job like that. All that the white kids want to do is sit at home and lead 'social' lives, or pack in a supermarket, than go out and learn something that can earn them some money and some respect. I work, mowing the lawn, sifting compost (my dad is an horticulturalist), digging, demolishing, building, fixing, etc, as well as do my homework, studying, dancing, and HEFing, and I am still alive! Those rich, spoilt kids would rather work out their thumbs, than be healthy and fit, and experienced and knowledgeable!
Wow that is great news to me digger. I just left a board that was run by bigots and other rude people, took all the fun out of it! The more I read the better I like the board.
I have no use for people here illegally. I don't care if they came from the moon legally. See what they really cost you in hospitals and schools and all the other BS that goes with it. Thats why CA is broke! I see illegals at Home Depot like 150 of them every morning. When they say "have a job?" I say yes who has a SS# or green card and the all walk away. So I know they are illegal. Then there is another 150 at the train station and they were 65 living in a house of 2000 sf How can anyone pay wages and taxes if everyone is just dumping cash out? No wonder the country is in the dumper. Sorry my father came here and bust his butt but legally. I do not blame illegals for coming here for a minute like my father did to make money. He had to have X dollars I think 5000 to claim himself in from Canada from Ireland and that was a bunch of money in 1949. When i needed bricklayers and they were from Ireland illegally I had no use for them either!
Manual labor sucks, I've been doing it since I was 13. But I'm glad I did, because I got some early exposure to construction while I was young. Not that I was very good then, but I was willing to do it. Most cases I've found with foriegn laborers is that having English as a second language has resulted in more accidents and more screwups while on the job. Sometimes things don't translate the same way, or as quickly I feel, and resulted in alot of our laborers getting hurt when I was working on the water. Not that they did a poor job, or that they weren't smart enough to do the work, but that at critical times given quick instructions something was bound to go wrong more often than with the American deckhands. The foreign born fellas were damn good workers, just second rate when it came to following through properly with detailed, unsupervised work. The American kids though, were mostly lazy, and bitched about every little task, and did not want to learn, only the basics. In a pinch though I could count on them to take on a complex task unsupervised and it would run out exactly as planned, allbeit nothing but pissing and moaning about it the whole time. Alot of guys today( not all, some gems are still out there) just don't want to pay the dues it takes to make them the operators or laborers they could be. I would always tell our dock boss to hire guys with families and over the age of 28 and preferably a homeowner. They had sometihing to lose if they didn't do well, and were ususally worth the money and then some. They ususally wanted to learn too, becuse old age was starting to creep in and busting ratchets and being the go-fer is taxing on the body.
I am 33 & I'll labor 7 hours for ya, if I can get the chance to operate for 1. Not as fast as I used to be though In my exp. if you are looking for high energy folks, with pride in workmanship...go hit up a wild land fire crew...not an engine crew. I am talking the 20 man crews that dig fire line all day long. Granted most of em are a little off center, & have enough testosterone to kick a horses hinney, but 90% of em are hard working dudes willing to do what it takes to get the job done, and are used to working long shifts...with low wadges. Illegals...hmm. My wife is from the Azores, & we went through a TON of work to get her legal. Her sister is staying with us right now, leaves on Friday. We really like her here helping with our baby, but if she stays longer she will be illegal (3 month cap), & that will not fly in my house. I see to many illegals that come here, & don't even try to speak the language, but expect ME to speak theirs. I currently work at Best Buy in Stockton, CA & most illegals look at me like I did something wrong when they say "espanyol?" (or however you spell it), & I say no. I peronally find it intimidating when there are 50 men walking up to my truck at a stop light all looking at me talking a different language. & they LOVE to get close to the truck don't they? ok /rant of speakie the language of the country you live in.
The company I have been at the last couple years has a help wanted sign out front. The first morning I thought it was a joke to improve our shop output or something. I aksed the owner about it, he said he needed a laborer with a CDL. We have teamsters for the dumps and lo-boy,but Our laborers were told last year to get cdls and they could have more work taking small stuff into jobs and back to the shop at the end of the day but none took the hint and missed out on winter repair work. So it will be intresting to see who gets a job outta this. If anybodys intrested you must have semi experince, belong to or willing to join local 582 Elgin,Il and have sewer and water experiance.
:cussing I'm a college kid!!! Haha . We aren't all that bad
I know when I was a kid my plans of becoming an operator were belittled by teachers and other authority figures who did not know that operating equipment takes skill and knowledge. I am glad that I did not listen to those people and followed my heartfelt desire, but when I was a kid it was quite destructive to my self confidence. I think that is part of the problem with young people not wanting to work as laborers. Also people might not realize that laboring (in the right circumstances) can help someone learn a skilled trade like operating.
As a kid the teachers always said smarten up or you'll be digging ditches the rest of your life....guess they were right
They didnt know what to say when I told them thats what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. :beatsme
Oh yes, but don't forget, it's the only job you will ever have, where you get to start at the top! Rn'R.
Nicely done I heard alot of the same too, "You'll never make anything out of yourself but a ditchdigger!" "Quit clowning around, do your homework and pay attention!" Sad for them to know 3 years after high school I was doubling their tenured salaries...wait for it....as a ditchdigger. 5 years later triple that as....a deckhand..... making 70% more...as an Operator And no student loans to pay off!!! Who's the clown now!!! 13 years of education taught me well...
I'll do it! I need ANY job right NOW! My kids are hungry..
I wish I was out there I wish I was out east where you guys are looking for labor, I've been in The IUOE for 15 years and it's totally dead here in Mn. Been laid off since December 08'
I am trying to get in the heavy equipment industry and I wouldn't have a problem being a labororer as long as I can be taught how to operate equipment. I would look at it as a trade off, my hard work for some instruction on the equipment. I have been working in a hospital for the better part of five years and I never knew what I wanted to do until one day passing a work crew on the highway then it hit me, I want to be a equipment operator. I realized that if I did not want to pay 7 grand for a school that I would have to pay dues, and hard work is paying dues
As a high school teacher myself, I have always encouraged my students to learn as much as they can in "Whatever Profession" they are interested in, whether it be white or Blue collar work. Showing up on time, willingness to learn and giving an honest 8 hours work for 8 hours of pay will take them a long way. Having put myself through college as a Machinist, I have great respect for any of the skilled labor positions. I also learned very quickly never to belittle "Any" job, because many of their parents are doing those same jobs. At least they are working and not on welfare, and certainly there is a certain amount of pride in that. Some students are great and highly motivated, and others are too lazy to even bring a pencil to class! :Banghead :my2c
LOL I always had a pen or pencil but had to use a classmates paper and books. I was very highly motivated just not at school, but still had a 3.something GPA. It would have been better, but if I didn't do my homework in another class it didn't get done.
I cleaned a lot of curb in my day.Shoveled a lot of curb back fill topsoil as a young man.Raked and shoveled a lot of topsoil in my early days.I was payed seven dollars and 5 cents an hour back then and I did it every day if I was told to.I got on a machine and proved myself when given the chance. As for laborers,Lord have mercy have I seen a bunch of em.I fired a bunch of em in my day.Every now and then you find one worth a darn.That is about one in fifty around here. I don`t believe in stereotyping or tacking a perception on anyone because of their race.So I think I`ll avoid that part of the discussion here. Anyways,laborers are like everything else.There are good and there are bad.Keep hiring and firing till you find a keeper and pay em right.
I think Finish Blademan hit the nail on the head. Some people just expect to come out today and be a foreman the very next day. I believe in "paying dues". That means showing yourself, busting your hump to get the job done. And in due time you will reap the benifits. Hard work hardly goes unoticed. If I'm wrong please tell me, isn't that the way it goes. I wish I could get a job with a company that will allow me prove myself. I work in a medical records office in a hospital, everyday is hell, working with a bunch of women cackling all day everyday, is hell, I would rather hearing the roar of a grader/scraper/dozer/loader or anything at this point.