Has anyone got a wage increase at CUS in the last two years ?

**Throttle jockey** · February 26th, 2011, 12:21 AM

I've been here 2 years, with no wage increase, but the entire state is the same way.

**TheCableVine** · February 26th, 2011, 10:52 AM

That's nuts. Do they give a reason? They should at the very least give a cost of living increase.

**FiosKing** · February 26th, 2011, 12:23 PM

that is pretty crazy you might want to do some company jumping to get more money. and what state are you in?

**overspray** · February 26th, 2011, 03:44 PM

How is your quality and productivity record?

**Throttle jockey** · February 26th, 2011, 05:02 PM

This is state wide. Mang. says it is from corp. and they say "no wage increase". and "no cost of living". And if you want to make more money than work someplace else. According to the supervisors this is company wide. But I would like to have this confirmed?

Fios:I live in the worst state, we just sent to gov. to the pin.

Overspray: I have zero A/Fs in the 2 years that I have been here. And only 6 in the 14 years I have been dong this. And when I left my last company CUS looked me up. I did not look them up. They did everything they could to bring back again. And of course I did.

So if you know any CUS guys could ask them about this. I have spoken to some of the other guys and the last time they seen a raise was over 6 years ago.

**The Big-E** · March 11th, 2011, 07:47 AM

CUS does offer the piece-rate program, which in Illinois works very well, if you give it a shot...

**justanotherlocator** · March 11th, 2011, 09:47 AM

I agree with BIG-E, piece rate is the way to go. My understanding is increases are not banned or frozen, but piece rate is the method they are moving to and no hourly increases will be given if someone refuses to try piece rate. I’ve heard they set a floor of the current wage when someone enters the program, so they are guaranteeing folks will make at least their current hourly wage in the program. Do a few more tickets a day and you’ll see the increase, along with an increase in bonus $$ by staying damage free. What have you got to lose trying something like this???? Production based wages is the way a lot of companies are turning to these days and was at a former job I had. If someone is working in a factory putting handles on refrigerators and they do three an hour day after day & week after week and never increase that speed, how can the employer afford to give an increase? All the material to make that handle has gone up, but they are still producing them at the same rate. If that guy was given an incentive to make more money by putting on more handles, I’d bet he would do it. Sounds like a win-win.

**Mke** · March 11th, 2011, 12:11 PM

I just see piece rate back firing on the locators. Your incentive becomes #'s wich is great, but typically when the #'s go up, the quality goes down. I know I'll get alot of the rebuttles for "I can work circles around everyone, and still have no damages" which is fine, but the exception does not discount the rule. Having the option to go to piece rate is great, as long as you don't get saddled with Piece rate, and then the company changes the game by adding time killers to your routine. Don't think this won't happen. Weekly safety meetings, Project meetings, Audits, and any other thing they can think of to hamper your output.

However, if the company wanted to switch all future employees they hire of to piece rate, as well as any current employees that willingly want to switch, that would be fine. I just hate when you get hired on under certian guidelines, and durring your tenure they decide to change the rules.

mke

**orangeboots** · March 11th, 2011, 02:48 PM

You have the option if you are a current employee not sure on new hires i'm getting ready to switch to piece rate but it's not for everyone. I have a city route with a lot of clears and alot of 2 and 3 way tickets. I have also been in my territory for 15 years.

**mls62976** · March 11th, 2011, 03:08 PM

Originally Posted by orangeboots

You have the option if you are a current employee not sure on new hires i'm getting ready to switch to piece rate but it's not for everyone. I have a city route with a lot of clears and alot of 2 and 3 way tickets. I have also been in my territory for 15 years.

It sounds like you have a good route for piece rate. But be careful. They have set a cap on how much you can make per hour. Not sure what it is exactaly. 20 something an hour.

We have a guy in our crew that has the same type of route that you do. He does very well.

**TheCableVine** · March 11th, 2011, 06:17 PM

I'm on piece rate and I wouldn't have it any other way.

If they put a cap on piece rate then they are putting a cap on their own income. The more tickets a locator does the more money the company makes. What do they care how much a locator makes as long as they are making money too. People aren't stupid. They'll figure out (quickly) how many tickets they need to do an hour so they don't lose money and they'll limit themselves to that number. Who loses? The company.

Piece rate cuts down on damages. If I get paid (for example) $2.50 for a clear ticket and $5.00 for a locate, I'm going to find a locate if there is one to be found. This means I'll locate that cable that I may not have located before. The company makes money, the locator makes money, and the cable will not get cut.

**rockiesgirl** · March 11th, 2011, 06:39 PM

Piece rate is all well and good if you work only in a city. I know a locator that STS tried to put on piece rate one time when I first started locating. His route is extremely rural. We are talking 300 miles a day at the minimum. We figured he would make about $5 an hour. He told them they could take their job and you know what. They kept him on hourly.
I worked at CUS and it took me quitting and going to work for a telecom company and my replacement and the other locators in my area getting all kinds of damages while I was gone to get a raise. They called and asked me to come back for a lot more than I was making when I left.

**Bad Robot** · March 11th, 2011, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by TheCableVine

I'm on piece rate and I wouldn't have it any other way.

If they put a cap on piece rate then they are putting a cap on their own income. The more tickets a locator does the more money the company makes. What do they care how much a locator makes as long as they are making money too. People aren't stupid. They'll figure out (quickly) how many tickets they need to do an hour so they don't lose money and they'll limit themselves to that number. Who loses? The company.

Piece rate cuts down on damages. If I get paid (for example) $2.50 for a clear ticket and $5.00 for a locate, I'm going to find a locate if there is one to be found. This means I'll locate that cable that I may not have located before. The company makes money, the locator makes money, and the cable will not get cut.

This sounds like the ideal working solution for most of the contract work I've seen. Why isn't this being used more often?

**TheCableVine** · March 11th, 2011, 08:42 PM

This sounds like the ideal working solution for most of the contract work I've seen. Why isn't this being used more often?

This is my recollection of what happened. Whether it is true or not I'm not sure. I just heard this happened but don't know if it actually happened.

When I worked with STS many years ago we went on piece work. We went on piece work because they wanted to try a different way. Apparently we weren't making a whole lot of money. I think we were in the red. Individually we ended up making more money. Our paychecks were bigger. People in rural routes were given more money per ticket. They were considered a loss but they needed to be compensated equally. We were motivated and we did more tickets. THEN... I heard that we as individual locators were making too much money. (Some locators were making more than the supervisors and the manager) The company was now in the black (for our area), and we were now going back to hourly. Oh, and we need to keep up the tickets-per-hour.

I don't know why all companies don't do piece work. They make more money and so do the locators. The company doesn't pay hourly any more. So a ticket doesn't cost them anything in hourly wages. It just costs them a percentage of the ticket price. It is a guaranteed price. How can you pass that up?

**mls62976** · March 11th, 2011, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by TheCableVine

I'm on piece rate and I wouldn't have it any other way.

If they put a cap on piece rate then they are putting a cap on their own income. The more tickets a locator does the more money the company makes. What do they care how much a locator makes as long as they are making money too. People aren't stupid. They'll figure out (quickly) how many tickets they need to do an hour so they don't lose money and they'll limit themselves to that number. Who loses? The company.

Piece rate cuts down on damages. If I get paid (for example) $2.50 for a clear ticket and $5.00 for a locate, I'm going to find a locate if there is one to be found. This means I'll locate that cable that I may not have located before. The company makes money, the locator makes money, and the cable will not get cut.

The reason for the cap was for holiday and vacation pay. They use your hourly average to pay you for your vacation and holiday. I guess they got tired of paying $30 per hour for someone to go on vacation.