Usually varies from job to job depending on how far they are from the hiring hall in that area. In my local once you are 50 miles away or more you get per diem, there was an outage at a nuke awhile back and they were paying welders 15 an hr over scale, so about 50 per hour + per diem and 1.5 and double time on Sundays. Also your pension and bennies. But that's in SoCal, most welders in the UA travel and they hit the money jobs, it's like anywhere once you get in and network then you find the money jobs. I don't know what area your in but find out if you get in how long before they'll let you travel. . . sometimes it's a year depends. Unions are great but a savvy player will go where the money is. I'm an inspector now, but when I was welding I paid my dues and when they had a money job available I went, when they didn't well I went where the money was. The union guys know this is how the game is played and unless your drawing attention to yourself by working non-union right in your backyard you'll be alright.
You get per diem working out of other halls as well once you can start traveling. Once you can start traveling you can go anywhere you want like what was said above (the big money jobs that pay per diem) If your hall is 300 miles away, I would suggest traveling and work out of your hall on the 7 12's jobs. Traveling is hard on the family though, so it's a tuff call for some people.
Oh yeah and most "specialty" welding contractors like WSI, or Carolina energy who pay per diem and the good bucks work you on jobs where sometimes you are out of the hall i.e union, and sometimes you are not so your working non-union for thier non-union side. But your still making your union package the reason they do this is because they don't want to man the job with the local slugs they'll get out of the hall if they do the job with the union side. When I was welding I had companies paying me union scale, paying my hotel and still giving me 120 a day per diem to put in my pocket. All because the locals we were in couldn't man their work, instead they sit around at the bar and complain about rats like me taking their work. I've paid my dues for 18 yrs. to the UA but that doesn't give them the right to tell me who or how much to work for. . . . . if the UA was smart they'd do more organizing instead of expecting people to travel with no per diem when they could be working on overtime jobs that pay per diem right at home. The UA isn't the answer to everything but I've spent a lot of money supporting it, I got in this business to make money and take as much time off as I can afford too. The reality is most guys who aren't plumbers who work 40 hrs year around are working both sides of the fence to make it in this economy. Very few companies in very few areas like Vegas for instance, keep a number of welders and fitters around steady. It's ramp up and ramp down, nature of the beast. If you like to live on unemployment and hang out at the hall more power to you but I would rather be working.
Like I said everyone needs good welders right now including the UA, so if they don't let people work how they choose they are only hurting themselves. If you think any major contractor gives a rip about whether they work a job as union or not then your sadly mistaken. If you think contractors don't bend and break every rule the halls impose about working locals etc. to get their welders on the job then you are also sadly mistaken. The labor unions have about 14 percent of the work in this country and that is not my opinion that is a fact look it up on the internet. I used to get on my soap box for years too until I realized that outside of offering a lot better training the unions are mostly about the money, the UA in particular does very little to help members and in my opinion caters to the contractors far to often. This happens not in a few isolated areas but everywhere I've been on the west coast and in the mid west. I won't even mention how crappy things are in the south!!! I'm just offering up my opinion cause that's what these boards are for. It might save someone else a bunch of time sitting at home thinking that the guys at the hall really care if they have a job or not. I haven't worked out of my hall for almost a year due to being in inspection but I still pay my dues because I believe in MOST of what they are trying to do. I won't go across a picket line to take a man's job, but I'm not going to sit home on unemployment when I can make 3K a week or better either. If that makes me a rat then so be it, I could care less what anyone calls me as long as they call me when they have work!!!
If I was you I would just tell the BA you cannot afford to work a job that will take you out of town right now unless it pays perdiem. Tell him you'll consider a job where you can be home at night but you just can't afford to travel w/o perdiem. Like I've said they need welders and more than likely they'll put you in, it's up to you whether you want to work or not. I'd be suprised if they won't take you in just because you won't travel right now. They don't have enough welders in most areas so they are trying to get them. It's not an easy choice to make. I worked union for years so I'd have a retirement and for me personally it was worth it. I went to some jobs that didn't pay per diem but they were working a lot of OT and that was what I could get. The per diem jobs are out there and I think union outfits will have to start paying per diem more soon because right now it's a level playing field. The nonunion outfits are paying good money and the perdiem definitely offsets the pension and bennies in the union. I see the wages going up and the per diem doing the same over the next few years we'll see. Everyone needs to keep this in mind and we ourselves need to get what we're worth. I don't even leave the house anymore unless the money is right, and if they don't like my number they can call the next guy. I get the money I ask for consistently I just don't go with the first offer. I've only been inspecting about a year and I know my rate sounds high to some but the company I work for pays it. I had an old employer call me a couple of weeks ago wanting 8 x-ray pipe hands. I said fine they'll be there in 2-3 days, they get XXX of money and hour XXX amount of hours and XXX amount of per diem. He agreed and I sent him 8 hands, they are all making very good money working on a shut down right now. He could've gotten them cheaper but he couldn't have gotten better in my opinion. Thats what I like about inspection I get to make my own deal and I can leave the hall out of it. I may go back to working as a welder for someone other than myself at some point but I got really tired of the politics.
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