# Maintenance Job Opportunity



## Labs Inc. (Aug 13, 2008)

Hey All,

I have an opening for a building maintenance technician in the provo area. Pay starts @ $15-$20/hr depending on experience. Simply put if you have the ability and drive i can get you the pay and the benifits! Please spread the word! 

Thanks!


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## brookieguy1 (Oct 14, 2008)

Labs Inc. said:


> Hey All,
> 
> I have an opening for a building maintenance technician in the provo area. Pay starts @ $15-$20/hr depending on experience. Simply put if you have the ability and drive i can get you the pay and the benifits! Please spread the word!
> 
> Thanks!


Ability and drive for 15-$20 per hour? Sorry but good luck with that. $30-$40 per hour and yes you'll get some talent.
Sorry to sound so snobbish, but it seems everyone wants to get human resources for pennies nowadays. Yet the same people won't bat an eye at spending $50,000 for a vehicle or $300,000 for a home.
I applologize for being so passionate about this subject, just my Union background coming out I guess.


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## twinkielk15 (Jan 17, 2011)

Can you give specifics on what kind of experience and skills you're looking for? You can PM me if you want. I'm looking.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I had to like brookieguy1's post. If you need a kid fresh out of high school those are good wages.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

brookieguy1 said:


> Ability and drive for 15-$20 per hour? Sorry but good luck with that. $30-$40 per hour and yes you'll get some talent.
> Sorry to sound so snobbish, but it seems everyone wants to get human resources for pennies nowadays. Yet the same people won't bat an eye at spending $50,000 for a vehicle or $300,000 for a home.
> I applologize for being so passionate about this subject, just my Union background coming out I guess.


Not sure if Union guys understand math very well, but you do realize that $30-$40/hour is $60,000 to $80,000 per annum, correct? For building maintenance....was this supposed to be in the humor section? Unions like to throw around big numbers, but they regularly forget to mention how much of that goes to dues and the fact that you will be layed off for a large portion of the year not making anywhere near that amount. And no, not making it up, my next door neighbor is a union electrician, even with the strong recovery this year he has been out of work more than he has been working this year and when he has been working it is mostly out of state. Something to say for being able to be home each night and have a regular schedule.


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Unions and people's "feelings" don't dictate what a job is worth.The market does. Other than artificially inflated union wages, a job generally pays what it's worth in its ability to make money for the company. $20.00 and hour should get you some skills, education, and experience in today's market. Driving and being motivated are not super highly valuable skills from a monetary perspective. Just my $.02. I have a ton of experience working with unions and have watched them hurt both the company and the work force in their own interest. I'm not a fan. If you want to make more money, make yourself more valuable and then go get it!--------SS


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## brookieguy1 (Oct 14, 2008)

Huge, at least with the Union you're getting paid what your worth while you're working. And SS, agree with making yourself more valuable, That is why you need to be a better employee and have drive even in the Union. So you won't be laid off. I've been in the Sheet Metal local for well over 20 years, and I've been laid off for 10 weeks of that. Here in Utah (a Right to Work for Less State) the Unions have little pull and it's not the gravy train some folks think it is. We get no paid holidays and no paid vacation. We get paid a good wage ONLY for the hours we work. It's paid medical insurance and a pension that sets us apart from the non-unions. 
Five years of training are what tell the contractor a journeyman knows what he's doing. If a guy gets hired and does not fit the bill or satisfy the owner, he's down the road. Same as anywhere else. A worker in the Union is just guaranteed a good wage IF he is qualified, unlike non-union, where a guy can struggle with very good skills and still be grossly underpaid.
Oh Huge, the Electricians have kind of made their own bed. There's just way too many of them. I think the guys that got into it wanted an easier job making good money, so hundreds of people bought into the electrical trade. They're lazy in general, and they just haven't got alot to bargain with when they are so overstaffed.
Commercial HVAC is heavy, bust ass work. Not real attractive to some. It's a very competetive market, but the Sheet Metal Union still carries the biggest share of the commercial market here in Utah. It doesn't happen from workers who don't make the owners money!


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

I can appreciate your opinion, but SS hit it. I have many painting contractor customers, most are thriving over the last year except the one union shop. The owner is a union believer, but cant seem to see why he cant get any work. I see his financials, he is struggling big time losing lots of money. We have had him bid on work for us all among qualified shops with full insurance and all do good work. The union shop came in at nearly double the cost. There certainly is a lot of skill in painting, but ...Why would anyone go with the union shop other than to avoid their picketing crews? Seriously?
Back to your post, is a building maintenance guy really worth $60k-$80k/year? How can I be working for less than I am worth when we have both agreed to what that pay is knowing the specifics of my abilities and knowing the small things that make me like the job? Rather than some group deciding that across the board guys with two years experience get paid this with no differentiation with those who have drive and those who dont? My plumber neighbor really struggled with the union work at first as he always in trouble at first for getting his work done way too quickly. They literally made him undo work when he did stuff bit out at 12 hours that he completed in about 7, it makes the other guys look bad. That is just a ridiculous joke in my world where the efficient guys are punished and the average guys are rewarded for just being average. 
I don't question that you work hard, but unions serve the kool aid so heavily that I dont think you really see the other side, you would probably say the same about me. We will both probably just be more determined that our original opinon was correct, but overall I believe that the time and place for unions is very long gone IMHO. I don't think it is any wonder that the auto industry has had so muich struggles with such large union tie ins. Just my $0.02.


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

I spent years as a lineman in the IBEW. I guarantee that I know all about hard work and unions and value and rip-offs. I have been non union, I have been union, now I manage union workers. I have a very clear picture. I have never seen the union benefit the best employees and the most skilled craftsman. The only minute value I see in unions is the networking function which could be accomplished by other means at much less cost to the worker.

I want to be clear that I am in no way putting down hard working union craftsmen and women......I am only commenting generally about the flaws that I see in the system.--------SS


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

I made more in a non union store (meat dept mgr) in 1985 than I could make now in a union store.One of the reasons I retired-O,-


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## cowmilker (Dec 17, 2008)

I have mixed feelings about union work. Many American employers would exploit their workers much like the sweat shops in some third world country, if it were not for employees unifying in some way. I worked for 12 years for a local dairy who, no doubt, would have only paid $9hr if not for a unified workforce. 
At the same time I have seen some people who don't deserve to have a job, get protected or treated better than others who pay the same union dues, because they know how to work the system.


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

I worked in a small union shop doing HVAC for a brief time although my then boss was able to keep me out of that bull s#!t and to this day I am glad. Now I work for a great non-union manufacturing shop supplying quite a few union shops with various plasma cut parts and formed pieces. The lack of drive and common sense I witness from those companies is sickening. I have had items returned because they weren't packaged to their liking. I have had items that in one way or another messed up by their guys or ours or myself that could have easily been fixed in a few seconds or minutes in the field returned to be re-cut or re-made and completely shut the job down while they waited. We have had deliveries refused that were very hot essentials to a job because there wasn't anyone willing to sign for them. The list and stories go on and on. Unions are nothing more than a bunch of guys who MOSTLY won't lift a finger unless everything is absolutely perfect and to a T. That to me is a lazy person/mentality. Anything to get out of doing something and prolonging your job. My personal .02


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