I've been misinformed...blue collar jobs can pay huge money

[flavio]

Rumor is the port workers in Oakland make some cash. Not sure how accurate this is but almost all the workers make 100k/yr or more, crane-operators possibly 250k/yr. Over 50% of Oakland firefighters made over 100k last year. Construction careers can net 6 figure incomes as well.

Not that I have a problem with any of these workers success but the fact that their salary crushes mine makes me wonder about the efficiancy of my career path. While I sweat through college and constantly hone my IT skills others join unions and develope fat wallets.

I think I've been mislead.

 

[wellerdball]

UPS truck drivers and delivery men for orrowheat make alot of money right?

 

[Omegachi]

yea, i heard the crane operators make 6 figures. i need a job like that...

 

[poncherelli2]

alot of them work their asses off though. My dad works for a contstruction company along the east coast and he said some workers bust their balls to get that money. They work over 40 hours (to get time and half pay) and then work on weekends when its usually time and half and possible 2x regular pay during sundays. Most of them are out there working 60-70 hours a week, sometimes not taking a day off or taking only one day off.

 

[tcsenter]

Sure and many of these jobs are so physically "demanding" that you can even smoke 3 packs of cigarettes, drink a six pack of beer, eat steak, eggs, and bacon for breakfast, and one of those big $7.00 1/2lb cheeseburgers for lunch every day for 30 years and end-up having a giant beer belly and a quadruple bypass before you retire, like 50% or more of these guys.

And when you're on six different prescription drugs for life-style related ailments having nothing to do with your work, you can threaten to strike when they want to raise your prescription co-pay from $5 to $10.

 

[The Dancing Peacock]

Originally posted by: flavio
Rumor is the port workers in Oakland make some cash. Not sure how accurate this is but almost all the workers make 100k/yr or more, crane-operators possibly 250k/yr. Over 50% of Oakland firefighters made over 100k last year. Construction careers can net 6 figure incomes as well.

Not that I have a problem with any of these workers success but the fact that their salary crushes mine makes me wonder about the efficiancy of my career path. While I sweat through college and constantly hone my IT skills others join unions and develope fat wallets.

I think I've been mislead.

I've heard about the San Pedro dockworkers, they do make bank, and it's almost impossible to get into it without knowing someone though. That job ain't easy, They're working with multi ton containers that if that crane operator does something wrong, they could get crushed? You know many IT guys with on the job hazards beyond carpal tunnel syndrome?

My friend is a firefighter nearby. When he worked for LAFD, his normal week was 50+hours, standard. They have the opportunity to make that cash for overtime beyond that threshold.

Honestly, I'm well suited for life behind a desk, sitting on my ass for 8+ hours isn't so bad compared to the possibility of being crushed, falling to death, or burning to death. Yes I know if you do your job right, these things shouldn't happen, but accidents occur at any time.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: flavio
Rumor is the port workers in Oakland make some cash. Not sure how accurate this is but almost all the workers make 100k/yr or more, crane-operators possibly 250k/yr. Over 50% of Oakland firefighters made over 100k last year. Construction careers can net 6 figure incomes as well.

Not that I have a problem with any of these workers success but the fact that their salary crushes mine makes me wonder about the efficiancy of my career path. While I sweat through college and constantly hone my IT skills others join unions and develope fat wallets.

I think I've been mislead.

a lot of these jobs are handed down by family, through the union. they make $60 to 150 an hour at the long beach ports. Thats why they are striking. they want to computerize the west coast ports, so that it can cut the work crews down from 16 people to 6 people . Believe it or not most of the port it still run with paper and pencil like its 1940 or something. if you have only 6 workers out there, then less people can get hurt. also crane operators are a joke. they have a mandated 4 hours max actual work per day, but must get 8 hours of work. so they get paid something like 150 an hour, for 4 hours of working, and 150 an hour for the other 4 hours of doing nothing. operating a crane is something that they should replace with electronics. the technology is there to build cranes, that work with say containers that are tagged with radio beacons. and locations tagged with more radio beacons. just they want to keep it the old manual labor way to make more money.



they actually do things with pen and paper. these guys need to learn how to actually earn money and not live on union power and passing jobs down through their families and nepotism. I hope they all go broke when they get fired because they better have learned to save that money. in other countries, port workers are the lowest paid laborers. And how much more dangerous is that job, than any other blue collar job. this whole danger pay idea is just ridiculous. if there were the case teachers in inglewood would make like 100k a year also.


garbage men in SF make 80k or so, but that job absolutely sucks especially with all the hills there. but these port workers, do not deserve 150-300k a year. i dont give a crap if they work 60 hours a week, there are plenty of mexican day laborers who do the same thing and they get jack. even programmers work 60 hours a week and not just the ability to write shipping container numbers on paper like these port workers. its not liek these port workers are physically lifting these containers, they just run around and write down numbers, and figure out where to move stuff. I think i'm just infuriated about the whole longshoreman union strike, just because its almost as bad as a baseball strike, just that these people have no special talent at all. baseball players are at least rare, and economics demands their special abilities, but longshoremen are just regular people .

 

[flavio]

I love the cranes, I stare at them every time I go across the bay bridge. They're wonderful pieces of machinery and I contemplated doing paintings of them. How the hell do you get jobs like that though. 250k/yr is large money.

I'm sure if just hit the tip of the iceberg though. There seems to be many more blue collar jobs that pay far above what I ever expected.

It seems the unions have some money positions so what are they?

West coast port workers are slowing the whole system down and gatting banked. There's about 10 other world ports that crush our productivity but we're not supposed to automate.

 

[MadRat]

Organized crime always did pay well. You don't want those jobs, guy.

 

[flavio]

How about tug-boat captain?

 

[deftron]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Sure and many of these jobs are so physically "demanding" that you can even smoke 3 packs of cigarettes, drink a six pack of beer, eat steak, eggs, and bacon for breakfast, and one of those big $7.00 1/2lb cheeseburgers for lunch every day for 30 years and end-up having a giant beer belly and a quadruple bypass before you retire, like 50% or more of these guys.

And when you're on six different prescription drugs for life-style related ailments having nothing to do with your work, you can threaten to strike when they want to raise your prescription co-pay from $5 to $10.

Sure those white color jobs are so easy that you have to drink 4 Triple Lattes in the morning just to show up, and then
you get to sit in a cublicle all day developin carpal tunnel syndrome. Youre on six different presciptions to deal with your job stress and sleep disorders.
Your benefits consist mostly of stock options, with are worth less than your gym membership. You get laid off cause the company is downsizing, and end
taking a gun to work and going postal.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: flavio
I love the cranes, I stare at them every time I go across the bay bridge. They're wonderful pieces of machinery and I contemplated doing paintings of them. How the hell do you get jobs like that though. 250k/yr is large money.

I'm sure if just hit the tip of the iceberg though. There seems to be many more blue collar jobs that pay far above what I ever expected.

It seems the unions have some money positions so what are they?

West coast port workers are slowing the whole system down and gatting banked. There's about 10 other world ports that crush our productivity but we're not supposed to automate.

my dad works in long beach at a major computer company, and well had they not shifted production to mexico , they'd be running out of cases for compaq presario and hp pavilions just about now.


he personally hates the port workers, because they are the cause of all the port fee rate hikes. His main solution to this, is he thinks president fox of mexico should open up the mexican ports to all the ships that are suposed to dock at norcal and socal ports and just truck the cargo up. Apparently due to the much cheaper mexican ports, this would actually cost less money than using current CA ports because of nafta.


There are tons of jobs like these, I.E. all those welders that make $35 an hour because of the UAW . thats not naerly as bad as150 an hour for a crane operator though. UPS workers make around $26 an hour, well for a driver anyways. Fedex guys oddly only make $17 or so an hour, and do a much better job. part of that $26 an hour was due to the UPS strike a few years back (this was back before RPS became fedex ground, so it was much more crippling than it would be had it happened today)

 

[Lucky]

the dockworkers average well over 100,000.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Originally posted by: Lucky
the dockworkers average well over 100,000.

And from what I saw on a TV special, the crane operators only work 4 hr shifts.

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: Antisocial-Virge

Originally posted by: Lucky
the dockworkers average well over 100,000.

And from what I saw on a TV special, the crane operators only work 4 hr shifts.

well, we wouldn't want their neck to cramp up, would we?

 

[UltraQuiet]

It's always funny to see the whining when a subject like this comes up. People are so incredibly jealous when someone else manages to get themselves a better deal. Here's a clue for all you,"unions are evil" people. THE COMPANY SIGNED THE LABOR AGREEMENT TOO. Nobody held a gun to their head. Sorry the crane operators, dock workers and clerks are making more money than you. Get over it.

 

[tcsenter]

Sure those white color jobs are so easy that you have to drink 4 Triple Lattes in the morning just to show up, and then you get to sit in a cublicle all day developin carpal tunnel syndrome. Youre on six different presciptions to deal with your job stress and sleep disorders. Your benefits consist mostly of stock options, with are worth less than your gym membership. You get laid off cause the company is downsizing, and end taking a gun to work and going postal.

Didn't quite come-off as well as mine, did it? I hate when that happens.

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer
Nobody held a gun to their head.

says who?

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer
It's always funny to see the whining when a subject like this comes up. People are so incredibly jealous when someone else manages to get themselves a better deal. Here's a clue for all you,"unions are evil" people. THE COMPANY SIGNED THE LABOR AGREEMENT TOO. Nobody held a gun to their head. Sorry the crane operators, dock workers and clerks are making more money than you. Get over it.

If companies could replace trained workers quickly, they wouldnt HAVE to sign those Union agreements. Hard to replace 10,000 trained workers in a week. Unions simply protect the lazy and fatten their wallets. I really cant think of ANYTHING more corupt in America besides Unions.

 

[justint]

The ports seriously need to be modernised and computerised. Ships arriving in the port of Singapore begin unloading in 5 minutes average, on the West Coast that can be anywhere from 1-4 hours. The Union needs to stop resisting technological change.

However, all of you people bitching about "how blue collar workers" are making more than us need to shut up. Working on the docks is hard dangerous work, with lots of mandatory overtime which is where some of those salary figures come from. 5 Dock workers have been killed on West Coast ports in the last 6 months. How many system admins have been killed in the same period on the job??

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer
It's always funny to see the whining when a subject like this comes up. People are so incredibly jealous when someone else manages to get themselves a better deal. Here's a clue for all you,"unions are evil" people. THE COMPANY SIGNED THE LABOR AGREEMENT TOO. Nobody held a gun to their head. Sorry the crane operators, dock workers and clerks are making more money than you. Get over it.

If companies could replace trained workers quickly, they wouldnt HAVE to sign those Union agreements. Hard to replace 10,000 trained workers in a week. Unions simply protect the lazy and fatten their wallets. I really cant think of ANYTHING more corupt in America besides Unions.

That's easy. Our Government. Duh.

 

[IGBT]

I hear they come up with those outrages income figures by cashing out all possible, not probable work scenarios. And their benefits. Plus many of those jobs may disappear if mgmt.implement the new labor saving technology.

 

[tcsenter]

THE COMPANY SIGNED THE LABOR AGREEMENT TOO.

Under duress, threat of economic ruin and extortion.

Nobody held a gun to their head.

No, its not done with a gun anymore. Sheesh.

Sorry the crane operators, dock workers and clerks are making more money than you. Get over it.

Ah, always the 'jealousy' angle, haha. And people who are offended that CEO's pocket $30 million while the company is in bankruptcy and thousands are laid-off, that's just jealousy, too.

I for one am never jealous of people who make more than I...provided that they made it lawfully and ethically. Threatening economic harm to a company if they don't pay you 3x the going wage isn't exactly what I would call fair or ethical play, its no different than the mob greasing you for a little 'protection' money. If you don't give us $500 a week, bad things could happen to you. Same difference.

I for one do not want to be paid a nickel more than anyone is freely willing to give me.

Working on the docks is hard dangerous work, with lots of mandatory overtime which is where some of those salary figures come from. 5 Dock workers have been killed on West Coast ports in the last 6 months.

How many of them were drunk or on drugs at the time? I can tell you roughly how many people on average were drunk or high on the assembly line of Chevy Truck and Bus in Flint, Michigan. I can also tell you how the union fought tooth and nail to protect every last druggie and fall-down drunk who were threats to themselves and everyone else.

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: hans007

Originally posted by: flavio
Rumor is the port workers in Oakland make some cash. Not sure how accurate this is but almost all the workers make 100k/yr or more, crane-operators possibly 250k/yr. Over 50% of Oakland firefighters made over 100k last year. Construction careers can net 6 figure incomes as well.

Not that I have a problem with any of these workers success but the fact that their salary crushes mine makes me wonder about the efficiancy of my career path. While I sweat through college and constantly hone my IT skills others join unions and develope fat wallets.

I think I've been mislead.

a lot of these jobs are handed down by family, through the union. they make $60 to 150 an hour at the long beach ports. Thats why they are striking. they want to computerize the west coast ports, so that it can cut the work crews down from 16 people to 6 people . Believe it or not most of the port it still run with paper and pencil like its 1940 or something. if you have only 6 workers out there, then less people can get hurt. also crane operators are a joke. they have a mandated 4 hours max actual work per day, but must get 8 hours of work. so they get paid something like 150 an hour, for 4 hours of working, and 150 an hour for the other 4 hours of doing nothing. operating a crane is something that they should replace with electronics. the technology is there to build cranes, that work with say containers that are tagged with radio beacons. and locations tagged with more radio beacons. just they want to keep it the old manual labor way to make more money.



they actually do things with pen and paper. these guys need to learn how to actually earn money and not live on union power and passing jobs down through their families and nepotism. I hope they all go broke when they get fired because they better have learned to save that money. in other countries, port workers are the lowest paid laborers. And how much more dangerous is that job, than any other blue collar job. this whole danger pay idea is just ridiculous. if there were the case teachers in inglewood would make like 100k a year also.


garbage men in SF make 80k or so, but that job absolutely sucks especially with all the hills there. but these port workers, do not deserve 150-300k a year. i dont give a crap if they work 60 hours a week, there are plenty of mexican day laborers who do the same thing and they get jack. even programmers work 60 hours a week and not just the ability to write shipping container numbers on paper like these port workers. its not liek these port workers are physically lifting these containers, they just run around and write down numbers, and figure out where to move stuff. I think i'm just infuriated about the whole longshoreman union strike, just because its almost as bad as a baseball strike, just that these people have no special talent at all. baseball players are at least rare, and economics demands their special abilities, but longshoremen are just regular people .

Exactly!

What those guys do is one of the biggest scams and a huge reason why I can't stand unions. It is also why the US is a third world country when it comes to its ports.

If you want to see efficiency, go to Singapore, HK, Japan and take a look at their ports and how they are operated.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: flavio
How about tug-boat captain?

$250k.

Catch is, it's not easy money, and there aren't a lot of openings. At Sandy Hook, now they want applicants with degrees in navigation and such right off. Then you work as an apprentice getting paid crap for like 10 years. Once you become full-fledged you're talking about a job where you get insane amounts of pay and vacation day in exchange for having the responsibility of jockeying 2000 foot oil tankers underneath bridges and over shoals. The job sounds fun, but it's dangerous, your hours are random, and it's extremely hard.

So are a lot of blue collar jobs.

There's no point being envious of them. There's no get rich quick scheme. A few lucky people make it, and you just have to work hard at what you do best. If that makes you financially wealthy, good for you. If not, take comfort of the fact that you won't be emotionally bankrupt.