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CET
Starting Member
22 Posts |
 Posted - 11/20/2009 : 11:21:07 AM
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Check out this article and tell me why the hell we are accepting jobs less than $30 an hour!!!!
"Where have all the welders gone?"
Haven't you heard??? There is a shortage of welders...certified welders....welders who can pass a certification test.
In Mobile, Ala., Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Co. is looking for welders. Welders who can pass a welding certification test.
The pay is solid — $40,000 to $60,000 — yet Bender Shipbuilding Co. recently found itself going to Mexico in search of candidates to be certified welders, said Jerry Betts, a quality assurance executive.
"American kids are simply not applying for the positions. "
What?
Is it because Welding suffers from a negative image and at some point in time in our culture, it became more appealing to sit in a Dilbert cube under buzzing fluorescent lights, than to work with your hands actually making something?
Or do we have Nintendo games and Rap music to blame?
Are we that Effed up ?
Shame on us.
TV Shows like Monster Garage and Orange County Choppers have sparked an interest in welding and fabricating but its too late.
There is a shortage of welders Jay Leno talks about a shortage of skilled welders in a video he made for the American Welding Society. He mentions that the reason the USA was able to defeat Hitlers armies is because we could build planes faster than the enemy could shoot them down,,,,like every 55 minutes.
Raise your hand if you think we could do that today.
So how do I become a welder?....and not just a welder , but a high paid certified pipe welder?
Think about the Pipefitters Union.
The certified welders of the United Association of pipefitters, plumbers, and steamfitters are leading the industry in the high tech welds that are vital to the nations largest industries like nuclear power, oil refineries, pipelines etc.
From MIG to TIG to Stick, or even Orbital Tig welds, UA members are the best trained welders in industry.
If you are going to weld pipe for a living, be aware of this plain fact. Union pipe welders make more money than non union pipe welders.
Never mind all the philosophical arguments about the merits of union vs non union. That's for another day. You don't have to know all the details to know that more money is a good thing.
Lets stick to the facts. If you don’t care how much money you make and you just want to weld pipe because it gives you a warm fuzzy, then don’t even read any further.
But if you actually are working for dollars, and not just for enjoyment , read on.
Way back in 1979 I worked at a union fab shop as a welder with the boilermaker union. (There was a slight shortage of welders back then too and they let a few of us non union scum fill in for a few months) . Then I worked for a non union contractor right after leaving the union shop. (the union guys asked me nicely to quit since they had people who needed my spot) Union scale was about 11 bucks an hour back then, The Non union job was only around 8 bucks an hour.... A big gap.
Fast forward to 2008. Union scale for a union pipe welder in my area is around 28 an hour. Yet I see jobs posted all the time on craigslist, Monster.com and careerbuilder.com for 15 dollars an hour for pipe welders. It's like they are not aware of the shortage of welders. Whats up with that?
I will repeat. If you work for the money, and seriously, who doesn’t? Union jobs pay better most of the time. Now don't go all crazy talking about union dues. Yes there are union dues to pay. But they are minimal compared to the extra hourly scale you make as a journeyman union welder. Since there is a shortage of welders in this country, there is opportunity.
Before you start thinking I am all pro union...don't.
I try to remain neutral on the topic...Its kind of like politics to me. I was in the pipefitters union once...and no its not perfect...yes there were politics...But I made better money.
and that's all I am saying...I am talking about making more money.....
Local union 72 in Atlanta GA is just one of many local union halls that has a fine welding training program that is trying to address the shortage of welders.
It is run by a fella named Cajun Seeger....now aint that a perfect name for a welder?
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piper103
Junior Member
101 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 11:41:44 AM
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wolverine75@cs.com
Average Member
USA
869 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 11:42:38 AM
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bender ship bldg went out of buisness too!!
theye were a sorry example of a company too
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wolverine75@cs.com
Average Member
USA
869 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 11:45:58 AM
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shortage of welders sure as hell isnt hurting economy,
you forgot to mention union people work both sides of fence theses day,
this generation does,
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weld on
Average Member
USA
956 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 11:51:05 AM
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| going to mexico for workers is ilgal in this country call ice......... |
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n/a
deleted
191 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 12:24:09 PM
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There is no shortage of welders, only a shortage of good welders. Ive seen alot of people able to pass a plate test but their welds looked like hammered dog sheit when they get hired. Maybe Atlanta is hurtin for welders but who wants to work with a bunch of coonazzes anyway. I sure dont.
I'm whitey and i apologize. |
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CET
Starting Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 12:59:13 PM
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| Whitey I agree there is a shortage of good welders! Problem is lots of people say they can weld and half the people doing the hiring don't know the difference between a good weld and bad ones or they just want it to look half decent and then they can pay them a lot less! So once some guy walks in and acts like he knows what he is doing and takes a job for a lot less pay these companies think they can pay the GOOD GUYS the same pay and that is killing us! |
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TattooLost
Average Member
USA
580 Posts |
Posted - 11/20/2009 : 1:25:09 PM
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Honestly that article just sounds like a commercial for the pipefitters union. And seriously, it's a marine job. You know that means they're paying $18. The good welders are looking for $25-35 an hour, and only the hungriest are probably going to shipyards. Maybe that's why they can't find any welders, not because there's a shortage.
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"...when two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong." --Richard Dawkins |
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Great White
Junior Member
354 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2009 : 07:01:27 AM
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| its all non-sense, he just wanted to go to mexico to "cheap labor" |
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Obama da Man
Junior Member
253 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2009 : 08:37:32 AM
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Great White,
you are correct.
See, this guy can go to any other country and bring back people on visas,claiming they are welders,yet he can also, when they get here, state they didn't pass their test and he can make laborers out of them or, he can claim he will train them to keep the government from going to the trouble of revoking a visa and filling another...
on top of that this guy can now apply to the federal government for assistance in training, at 8 bucks an hour the guy is considered poverty level,and the government will pay him $7,000. a year to train the guy and another $7,000 ,because he hired somebody who was at poverty level, plus the tax write offs he gets for seeking employees from a third world country.. |
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n/a
deleted
2320 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2009 : 08:43:34 AM
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quit cryin if they want it and can get down wit it let em,chit man if they can do it an like it phuc it maythe best man win c u at the finish line,phuc them ship yards dont no nothin about em an dont wanna no may the best man win,so stop all this belly achen,sound like a bunch of women in here huh |
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PIMS
Senior Member
USA
1204 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2009 : 4:04:42 PM
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MOSS POINT, Miss. -- Officials said at least one person was killed Friday in an explosion at the VT Halter Marine shipyard in the Mississippi coastal city of Moss Point.
The Sun Herald reported that Bennie French with Acadian Ambulance Service confirmed one person died and three injured people were taken by ambulance to Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula.
French said another person with critical injuries was taken by helicopter to the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile.
The explosion reportedly occurred about 4 p.m. Friday and the cause was not immediately known.
VT Halter Marine's corporate office is in Pascagoula, and its shipbuilding operation is in nearby Moss Point.
A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.: Mae West
Live your life in such a way that
when your feet hit the floor in the morning,
Satan shudders & say's schit she's awake |
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Tonycombo
Junior Member
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2009 : 6:17:53 PM
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There are just a shortage of welders that will actually work on a sh!tyard....and the restrictions are getting too tough with the backgrounds and hft's........."Hell, I remember when you couldn't get a welding job if you didn't have at least 2 felonys and a bag of weed"
www.norml.com |
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stringerbead81
Average Member
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2009 : 9:09:56 PM
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Hell I like it when these companies start crying about how they cant find welders, and how there is a shortage of welders. it will cause our wages to increase and also if it werent for the welder wannabees then welders like us wouldnt stand out and we wouldnt get the wages that we desire. All of you know that no matter how bad things get in this country we will continue to use electricity and petrolium so if you are the cream of the crop of your trade then you will always find a job as long as you stay out of trouble and keep a good name for your selves. All of these companies right now are cutting our wages out from under us but sooner or later it will bite them is the a$$ you wait and see.
Where at and what's the pay. |
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Great White
Junior Member
354 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2009 : 07:44:17 AM
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| Dig it man! I worked in a shipyard in New Orleans back in '82 and yeah I was broke and hungry, nowadays I would sooner work at Wallyworld than shipyard, What a chithole !!!!! |
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n/a
deleted
2320 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2009 : 01:00:17 AM
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| strigerbead spoken like a true beadhand we will always work we have nothin to worry about our craft and talent will pull us through,u b a smart hand |
Edited by - n/a on 11/30/2009 11:54:05 PM |
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Shortage of Welders hurting economy?
