Attn: Boilermakers

Date 08-22-2010 15:39 Edited 08-22-2010 15:42

I didn't think it could get any worse but it has. This job would have employed hundreds of boilermakers. Now it employes a couple of dozen. The last couple of paragraphs says what we in the trade already know. There's no work in the power industry these days:

http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article169021.ece

"At 3,000 tons (5,899,510 pounds, to be exact) and 124 feet high..... Sixty feet wide and 118 feet long, it was fabricated in Indonesia, assembled in Mexico and welded to a barge to be brought to Queens."

By HillbillyWelder (**)

Date 08-23-2010 00:18

I used to work at a fab shop in Lorena, TX that went belly up earlier in the month and we got a job(back at the first of the year) to repair welds on several pipe racks(for the new Sandy Creek Power Plant being built in Riesel, TX) that was built in Indonesia designed in Japan, lets just say the welds we fixed and didn't fix looked like swiss cheese. How this chit passed inspection is beyond me. Watch the news, this thing is going to fall and fall hard....Remember you get what you pay for..ie...pay chit you get chit

By commonarc (**)

Date 08-23-2010 00:31

I hope so. Boilermakers in Ohio, NJ, NY PA, ME etc are starving up here in the northeast and the great lakes region. There's not even out of town work available. Never seen it this bad and I've been doing this a LONG time.

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 08-23-2010 05:19

How long steve?

Henry

By dbigkahunna (****)

Date 08-23-2010 02:07

10 Million dollars. This equipment will qualify for the "green energy" tax breaks.
Hopey the Clown helps the unemployed American.

By commonarc (**)

Date 08-23-2010 22:33 Edited 08-23-2010 22:42

Yes, Hope & Change has not been kind to the Boilermaker union members. The funny (or sad) thing is that the Boilermakerss leadership were the first large trade union to endorse Barry in the democratic primary against Hillary. Hope and Change has shut down or postponed almost all coal plant construction or expansion since he was elected. Refinery work is very lean as nobody wants to put money into infrastructure due to the unknown regulations coming from Barry's EPA. Unemployment amongst the members is the highest I have ever seen in my 22 years in the trade. The Bush years are going to look like the good ol days by the time Barry is done. I got a letter in the mail saying my 20 plus year pension is in big trouble. Every wage increase we get for the next 5 years is going to shore up the pension and they are also taking money out of our hourly rate on top of it. It's basically frozen. It's looking pretty bleak and pension default is almost assured. The members near me are disgusted and we lost several members over the past year who moved on to other areas. Not the kind of people you want to lose either. The business managers still get together each year for the Marco Island Florida party and golf outing ....excuse me, building trades conference....or is it Vegas this year? I can't keep track.

By Johnny Walker (***)

Date 08-23-2010 22:44

I think all politicians are liars!