Will It Ever Get Better?

Well almost one year to the week and i'm laidoff from work again. I had a few choices this time though.

1- Take a voluntary layoff with a return to work date of June 1st. What happens at that point is anybodys guess.
2- Take a chance and stay. If I chose to do this and I needed to be moved to another dept. my pay would be cut immediately to the top rate in that dept which by the way the next closest is almost $5 an hour less. At that point I could still take a vol. layoff but would not have a return to work date and would not be called back until my dept. picked up again.

I'm not a big fan of unemployment, but #1 was the better option at this point. If I stayed and got moved with a pay cut, whats to say I don't get laidoff 2 months down the road. Then my unemployment would be based in part by the new lower pay rate.

Corning Inc. is hiring like mad at their diesel filter plant but that is around 25 miles away and their business is always up and down. Their pay and benifits are very good though. I guy that I work (or worked) with said his nephew just got hired. Only thing he has ever done is flip burgers and he got hired @ $18.00 hr. After probation is up it goes up $2.00 automatic. Plus I understand they work a weekly rotating swing shift. That would kill me.

Going to have to think about it though.

Yeah,
That's rough working a swing shift. I did second shift once and when I got home my girlfriend was ready to go to sleep. I was hyped up and usually stayed up another 8 hours till dawn. Good luck, NYS aint the industrial machine it used to be.

jeez, I hate it when there are no good solutions. What kind of product do you make? Obviously there isn't much demand for it now, will the summer months change that? If not, the chances of your being laid off after you switch positions is still pretty good. Having said that, I'd watch out for the 25 mile commute - who knows where gas prices are going. That could eat up your take home pay really fast. I worked the swing shift once and I'd almost rather have a permanent swing shift then a rotating one. At least then you have some stability in your sleep schedule. Like I said, no good solutions here. Good luck and God Bless you and yours, Lisa

Is it a union shop ? Do what you need to, but if it were me, I WOULD WORK AS LONG AS I COULD. I had this happen were I work, union shop but they did not train you on a new job. My senority was higher than others, I bid on a job before the layoff and #1 got the job, #1 at the BOTTOM of the list. I'm in the senority 50's with a high of 90. Did not ask if I wanted the job, qualification was made to order for #1, wanted 20 years exp. as a cement mason to repair kiln cars. No one that had the job before had this exp. Unemployment averages the low and the high quarters in PA. IF THEY ARE WILLING TO LET YOU WORK IT SHOWS THEM YOU WANT TO WORK. Those that are laid off may be swept under the rug. Return dates hold water like a rusty bucket. IT may of helped that the low mans son is on the union commette . Guess I have to run for office next time around.

I keep reading that the economy is slowly picking up, but you wouldn't know it by the job growth. Paper making in Maine has been up and down for years. The government is slapping an import duty on some kinds of paper, which should help in the short run. In the long run, though, there's no way to compete with the wages in some parts of the world. Good luck to you -- been there and it's an awful feeling, willing and able to work, and good at it, but no work to be had.

I`ve been there also & would agree to working as long as possible, I know the so called rust belt never did come back & I fear the paper mills are also being hurt by the internet as much as foreign trade. Not an easy answer in any case it always takes a lot longer to recover than to go down hill, the businesses that survive become gunshy & don`t like to commit to recalling laid off workers.

The manufacturing industry around here,NEPA is going down hill fast. My plant lost its largest contract to a company thats manufacturing is done in Mexico. We are all on a razors edge there will be big layoffs come the end of June and July. I can always try to go back into the auto repair buisness, but after being out of it for 20 plus years, I would be at a great disadvantage in many areas of trouble shooting. What mfg jobs are left are all 8 to 10 dollar jobs.I just keep looking and sending out resumesfor something better. But it will take time.

lowfog01 wrote:What kind of product do you make?

We make cable connectors. The kind on the back of your television and the larger sizes up to 1-1/2" Economy really hurts us. When people are off from work, cable is one of the 1st things to be let go. When their not doing installs and rebuilds of their systems, we lose business. They are slowly bringing other work in to hold us over, but thats even hard to find. It usually pics up in late May or June.

I did fail to mention that if they did not get enough people to take the vol. layoff and their were not enough places to move everyone, then there would be actual layoffs. I'm on the bottom of the totem pole. At one time we had right around 100 operators and setup people in our dept. over the 3 shifts. For the last year or so we have been down to about 15 total between 1st & 2nd shift. The plant used to employ roughly 1100 employees in the mid to late 90's and now is down to about 250.

It will get better sooner or later. Hopefully sooner than later.

A guy not far from me works for one of the local installer Co.s & about every other week or so he just throws away bags of connectors among other things like phone lines, you guessed it all made in China. They just pass the costs onto the consumer, I only know this because my neighbor has a small dumpster box on his farm & thats where his son in law dumps the stuff. Instead of American Co.s working together they seem bent on screwing one another.

Well, that was short lived. I got a call from work about the 19th of May and they said I would be off even longer and would not return until July 6th as opposed to June 1st. One week later on the 26th I think it was, they called again and said to report back to work the following Monday (June 1st) So as it turns out I ended up back to work yesterday.

The only drawback to going back was that I was going to make arrangements with the Dept. of Labor or Unemployment to take classes to get my CDL. That is one of the few positions around here that is hiring like mad. Especially with all of the NG drilling going on. They can't seem to find enough drivers.

Either way at least i'm back to work.

Good for you Ceccil, glad your back to work. Driving truck isn`t all its advertized to be, its a hard way to make a living but as you say they are always in need of them, that in inself should say that theres a reason why.

I'm not saying that's what I want to do for the rest of my life but it would be something to fall back on if the need arrises. I have a wife and son to think about and always like to have a plan "B" just in case. Thanks all.