usic paycuts etc why? im sick of the bs blaming the economy for this crap

**fiberlocator99** · February 12th, 2011, 09:16 PM

im going to rant real quick. usic has become one of the biggest loctate companies in the industry. they have contracts almost everywhere. where i live, they do gas, electric,cable,phone as the main contracts plus others like sewer/water and few fiber contracts. in il downsouth i do beleive they lost the gas contract with nicor and elm got it. what did they do? they went and bought parts of elm and elms assets. so now they got their contract back. in il in 07, they wanted the at&t contract. what happend? they took over cls boom they got the phone contract. usic sux bottom line. they treat their employees like shit put gps on their trucks. they dont trust employees period. yes i know there are a few bad apples out there, but things like that shouldnt be pushed on the good employees. so why the hell are there going to be paycuts? you do 1 ticket an hour with 4 utilities on a ticket, they are making about 35 to 50 bucks an hour on your 1 ticket. if they did piece rate, you could prob make at least 20 bux an hour 3 out of the 4 seasons a year with usic still profiting on your production. i heard from the at&t/t guy that at&t wants it back in house. anyone else hear that? i hope they lose the com ed contract to another out of state company like adesta lost the city of chicago contracts to urg.

**locator00566** · February 12th, 2011, 09:32 PM

Amen Brother! USIC made a profit of 300 million last year. Just a bunch of greedy corporate suits pissing on the ones who makes them all that money. USIC has some of the worse sups. and managers I've ever seen. Its only a matter of time before all of this catches up to them. Whats it going to take? A $ 10 per hour tech mis-marking a 750 primary and getting someone killed??

**Turk182** · February 12th, 2011, 09:58 PM

Not my problem anymore, I turned in my truck and equipment a couple days ago.

**sprayandpray** · February 13th, 2011, 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by locator00566

Amen Brother! USIC made a profit of 300 million last year. Just a bunch of greedy corporate suits pissing on the ones who makes them all that money. USIC has some of the worse sups. and managers I've ever seen. Its only a matter of time before all of this catches up to them. Whats it going to take? A $ 10 per hour tech mis-marking a 750 primary and getting someone killed??

Where did you find this info?

**Bad Robot** · February 13th, 2011, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by locator00566

Amen Brother! USIC made a profit of 300 million last year. Just a bunch of greedy corporate suits pissing on the ones who makes them all that money. USIC has some of the worse sups. and managers I've ever seen. Its only a matter of time before all of this catches up to them. Whats it going to take? A $ 10 per hour tech mis-marking a 750 primary and getting someone killed??

I'd like to see the earnings report on this. From what I've been able to gather you guys haven't been able to see any financial numbers since Kohlberg took over. And what pay cuts? I haven't heard anyone in the Midwest complain about paycuts. The pushing back of your payraises to April maybe, but not paycuts.

**big boots mcghee** · February 13th, 2011, 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by Bad Robot

I'd like to see the earnings report on this. From what I've been able to gather you guys haven't been able to see any financial numbers since Kohlberg took over. And what pay cuts? I haven't heard anyone in the Midwest complain about paycuts. The pushing back of your payraises to April maybe, but not paycuts.

I've not heard anything about paycuts either.

**locator00566** · February 13th, 2011, 11:53 AM

The pay cuts are in reference of the ongoing negotiations with the union in North Carolina. USIC claims techs make too much money and are trying to force a $ 5 per hour decrease in pay.

**sprayandpray** · February 13th, 2011, 10:32 PM

I would still like to know where the $300 million figure came from.

**OVUS1** · February 14th, 2011, 09:04 AM

Not trying to come to anyone's defense here, but I would imagine that the hourly cost just to run a fully-loaded truck, including overhead, is somewhere around the $50-55 dollar an hour rate (a lot of that depends on damages/fines, management salaries/benefits, and geographic location too). Just a nickle swing in fuel costs can add a tremendous amount of un-budgeted pressure on cash flow and leave a company scrambling for ways to recapture cash. Any responsible company would find ways to continually reduce overhead and not allow the "cash recapture" to flow all the way down to the technicians in the form of a pay cut or pay reduction. We refuse to work in union states because of the entitlements they expect. When a company is so handcuffed that they can't fire a non-productive worker for due cause because of a collective bargaining agreement, the cost of doing business in that area has to be extraordinarily high. Guaranteed pensions are killing every state and company in this country, when all along we should have been putting money aside ourselves instead of living large and waiting for our "entitlements".....

I feel your pain folks, and hope that the ultimate outcome doesn't trickle all the way down to your paychecks.

**orangeboots** · February 14th, 2011, 10:55 AM

what are the benefit package differences between usic union and no union employees?

**locator00566** · February 14th, 2011, 02:00 PM

The 300 million is in reference to documents that were shown at one of the union meetings in NC. It is also made available to the public. With a little research, you can find profits from any company.

**paintitnow** · February 14th, 2011, 05:07 PM

by no means i am an union guy, my personal view is it breeds medirocy. In regards to those guaranteed pensions, I do recall serveral business going out of business that had union workers and it came to find out that they borrowed or never fully funded the unon pension. No w I am not schooled enough to know if these were normal or guaranteed pensions. I am sure all the suits golden parachute contracts were always fully funded. In our business where contracts are won and lost i could see a company lose a contract and leave the state. I grew up in a union town and the union guys always had the toys. Unlike most of america a lot of people live beyond their means. Alot f it was also the banks, telling some one they have credit good up to lets say 250K and the person goes buys a house bigger than they need. most do not take in account taxes will go up, you also have to maintian besides heating and cooling a massive house. Usic 401K plan seem to be bleeding money for a acouple years.

**Paint'n & Flag'n** · February 14th, 2011, 06:06 PM

What I'm hearing from a buddy of mine in NC is that the union might be heading out the door if a certain vote goes right.

As to pay cuts in NC dont believe everything you hear. That meeting in NC that was held by the union reps was a lot of horse shit and scare tactics to try and increase their card holding membership. They are way down in numbers and they are worried that they are going to be shown the door.

There's a lot that is going to be going on in NC.

Told my bud to keep his head high and not to drink that union koolaid.

**locator00566** · February 14th, 2011, 07:03 PM

The Union is all but finished in NC. I hope it stays that way. USIC will find a way to screw their employees with or without the union.

**sprayandpray** · February 14th, 2011, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by locator00566

The 300 million is in reference to documents that were shown at one of the union meetings in NC. It is also made available to the public. With a little research, you can find profits from any company.

Not to beat a dead horse but I have searched the USIC and OMERS sites and find no financial reports after 2009. So, I decided to do the math and took the $300 million figure and divided it by 3,000 Locators and come up with the figure of $100,000 per Locator of Profit! Now I do about 15,000 locates per year and the last time I checked, my average ticket price per locate was around $9.00. $9.00 X 15,000 = $135,000 in Gross Billing per year. If by some miracle , 33% of this is profit, then I made the company approximately $44,550.00 profit last lear. More realistically, the Profit Margin probably runs about 20% which would come out to $27,000 in profit I made USIC in 2010. Multiply this by 3,000 Locators and the figure of $81,000,000 is what you get. Of course there are taxes and probably some other expenses that would come off this figure.
So, while this amount is still healthy, it's quite a ways from $300 million. Therefore, if this is what the Union is putting out, I , too , call BS!!!