From ADN - and yeah, the starting wages and benefits need correcting, but really? Street clearing force is down 20% in Anchorage which means even slower clearing after such heavy snowfall.

"out of work" but $21 .23/hr is "not worth their time"????. Apparently sitting home drinking beer is?

No wonder unions sometimes suck.

"According to Alward, the union has 258 members currently on its “out of work” list, meaning they are qualified and trained for handling the various equipment involved in plowing and clearing roads. But at the current wages offered by the city, which start at $21.23 an hour without benefits, he said, it’s not worth their time, especially since many have invested thousands of dollars and weeks of time to obtain commercial driver’s licenses."

LAS, is that only when it snows? So if it takes you three days to clear up a snowstorm what do they do with you? Do they lay you off?

I wonder what the Davis-Bacon wage is for the same jobs? I'm going to say at least double.

They pay burger flippers $18/hr as a starting wage around here. Skill set for an equipment operator is a lot different.

The elephant in the room... former Mayor Berkie sold the general use pool in his tidying up on his way out. They used to replace half of the heavy equipment each cycle. The replaced stuff was put in a general pool for use by all city utilities. The general pool stuff was sold as it was replaced. Berkie sold it all. Now there is not enough HE and it shows.

Go to Workplace Alaska. The State is hiring equipment operators for $25/hr starting PLUS BENEFITS.

There were a couple other items in the article.

Maintainence equipment repair crew works a 5 day, 40 hour week- not over weekends. Something breaks on Friday, it's down until Tuesday - if they have parts.

They have about a dozen graders down now for repair. When and if they get the parts. When it comes to availability of goods (not just these) , it appears the good old days are past, and we are no longer a first world nation with a good supply line.

My point in the original post was that they are 20% understaffed (full-time jobs, not terribly susceptible to lay-offs, but the money for wages has to be there also), the union has all of these "out of work" guys, and no one appears willing to work - at least not at those wages, even if those are funded. Being Union "unemployed" is apparently better than working for a sub-par wage.

I'd bet that if qualified non-union "scabs" got hired, the union boys would be on strike tomorrow.

To repeat myself- starting wage and benefits appears inadequate, and needs to be upgraded.

Art is well-off- he can afford increased property tax, plus - I don't live there.... .

That's more reasonable, depending on bumps for seniority, etc, and the specifics in the benefits.

Many don't need any money. Thanks to inflation they have $684,000.00 equity in their home they purchased for $78,655.00 in 1988 during the Great Alaska Real-estate Depression. They have 2.6 million dollars in their stocks and bonds portfolio. They just need to pay their dues, and wait till their pension kicks in.

This is a problem throughout America. Thanks to inflation and the investment markets everyone over fifty is wealthy.

You are pulling those numbers out of your ass; and to generalize that everyone over 50 is wealthy is the height of idiocy. May be true for a select few, but they would represent a small percentage.

Unless they sold all of their stocks when Trump was in office, they are down quite a bit. My retirement account has lost quite a bit this year and last due to the Biden economy.

Mighty hard to eat real estate! No matter how valuable!

Well off? If I had your money I'd...

Caribou towel???
Moose bible??!!

Tell us!

🤣😎

Sold a few acres this summer for quarter million cash.

laughing!

Just keep farming till its gone?

yup

Land is a liability until its an asset.

Tax office keeps telling me how much more what I own is worth. Fine. But it ups my taxes and my wages go up.

I don't want to sell what I have. Therefore its a liability. Not an asset at all.

If you choose to sell then you have an asset you can use the cash from.

Thinking that we all think like you is your fault. Its my fault too. I think everyone should think like me.

And FWIW my pay as a guide isn't much better and zero benefits but I work to pay bills at something I like. There is that.

Those that refuse to work are whats wrong with this country. And unions can make the issue and the people worse.

Who would sit at home making nothing rather than work for something. Heck I take jobs for friends often enough without even asking pay rate. I'm treated fairly enough

First year in guiding was "NO PAY" (that was standard then).
Second year (meat packer, camp flunky, shut-up and do what your told to do) $50.00 a day.
Got Asst. Guide License $100.00 per day pay, after two more years $150.00 a day pay.
Got Registered Guide License $200.00 a day pay. Licensed to guide in more the half of the 26 game units, still $200.00 a day pay. It was both fun and hell, glad I spent half my life doing it.

No way, Hosea! The next boom in Alaska will be farming hemp, dontcha know? (The Sativa form of "saving the State" seems to have fizzled in spite of its raving popularity.)

AGL you are in the wrong state for land sales. I turned down 450 ths. cash in my hand on a 85ft.x125ft. lot

Turns out farming is work. Who knew?

well it hasn't changed much pay wise... And IIRC master guides today can only hold the license to guide actively in 3 units at a time. I'm impressed though. What I've heard the tests for each unit take a LOT of memory of maps and such. To have memorized all the drainages in half of Alaska is pretty impressive.

25 p/h is 1600 take home +/- every two weeks. Living on that in AK will be tight, The state is currently recruiting at above wage grade pay or advanced step placement.Problem with that? They are not paying existing employees anything more. So a state worker will most likely be training a new person making more than them if the existing employee with the state is not a long term one.THe ak laborers union local 71 negotaited a contract last go around that does not match the CPI , The state is operating at 50-65% staffing levels. Some one eluded to Davis Bacon, thats federal but interstingly Ak pays less than WA and OR in Davis Bacon so best of luck recruiting. We are experiencing a net population loss.Our target 87 per barrel is not going to be met. Wre are in trouble!

Also, I wonder how many of these people would rather work on JBER clearing the runways in the winter starting at $30+ an hour with benefits? The guys on JBER I knew that drove plow trucks even in light snow years all worked 40+ hours a a week and then add shift differential, weekend, and holiday pay, and they are not doing too shabby. After they work on base 6-8 months a year, many went and worked on the slope, or other jobs, I think one or two commercial fished as well.

Those memory tests did not exist until about the '90s.

That snow removal gig on Elmendorf is a good gig from what I been told. Pretty much come to work October through April. Full benefits even when you are not working (in the summer) from what I was told by a fella that did the job. Also once the winter season over they will ask you if you want to work the summer crew doing road work around post. The only downside you are on call and not unusual to get a call to come in at 0200 in the morning.

Was not much before I started, that Guides were licensed for the whole State. There was no test. You were interviewed by an Alaska Territorial Police or State Trooper, and if he felt you were qualified, it was processed. The interview was not about knowledge of the game, but the individuals field experience and ability to stay alive in Alaska wilderness.

It was tougher to survive back then.

From my understanding of working in the same Squadron and then at my current job the employs several term and temp hires, they go in suspended mode when not working. They do not get paid and possibly lose their insurance if they had it. They do not however lose their retirement, etc, it just picks back up when they return to work.