RR / Union question

With my business at a standstill due to the economy and the future unsure at the moment due to other non economic reasons I"ve been looking into other full time employeement. That said the RR in our area has several job openings in catagories that fall into the range of things I routinely do. I"ve done work for them in the past, as an independent, but that has been a few years ago. At the time most of the guys I talked too always seemed pretty happy with the way things were insofar as the pay, benefits, etc. I figure part of this is due to the unions and a fairely high pay scale as compared to some other similar jobs. That said the jobs I"m looking at draw a decent hourly wage, but my question is how much should/could I expect the Union dues to cut out of that amount each month??? I"m figuring if it"s too much then none of the jobs are worth it, but if it"s a negligable amount then it might be worthwhile to look into. I figure some of you out there have either work or worked at the RR or know someone there now and might be able to give me a general idea of what the Union would cost me if I were to get my foot in the door. Thanks, Wayne

Was a member of the boilermakers for awhile....dues were pretty cheap then, Here


I'd ask the union that you would be working with...sometimes there are apprenticeships to go through.

Normally you will work a while like 90 days which is sometimes 90 workdays or sometimes 90 calendar days before you get in the union.It might mean you get fired before then if the Union doesnt like you,or the company may not like you and fire you then tor in some cases the company will hire people and fire them before they get in the Union.I dont know about the Railroad,but welders would get hired to do a job,and as soon as 89 days were up they would fire them because if they got in the union it would be a lot harder to fire them,plus they would have to pay them more and give them insurance,so they fired them and had a job done or close to it for less money.Its been a while back,but in the 1990s my Teamster Union dues were 54 dollars a month. I brought home between 1200 and 1900 per week so it didnt hurt me too bad.You can ask somebody working there how much they pay,I always got a receipt in my pay envelope when they took out dues.The dues also paid for a magazine and some other stuff they would mail to you.
The other times I worked in a Union was in the 1970s for the Steelworkers and Ironworkers and it was less than 54 dollars a month,seems like about 35 dollars a month but all of those prices are surely higher and depend somehow on how much you make and what the contract is.Different places would be different scales and different dues Im sure.If you know what Union Local office it is you could call them and find out.Its nowhere like the big deal some try and say it is.You wont even notice the dues probably,your Federal and State taxes are way,way higher.

don't sell the insurance and vactime and other benefits short over self employment. Don't ask how I know

It's hard, dangerous work but you already know that.

Union dues will be somewhere around $100 per month and then there is the Railroad Retirement program withholding. Railroad Retirement tax is similar to Social Security tax but higher and benefits are better.

When/if you get in to the union you can buy job insurance which pays you WHEN you get fired. You have to plan on getting fired once in a while but getting fired by the railroad is not the same as getting fired in the real world. It's all a game.

NCWayne, aren't you from Murphy? We had to be up that way this week for a funeral.

I am a member of the IUOE,operating engineers.Boiler operator,not heavy equipment.As far as Im concerned my union is very disapointing at this time.Cost me about 800 bucks a year.I think my pension is pretty good,but I guess I will find out in about 7-8 years.The problem is!!!havent had a raise in 8yrs.Yes,its been tough for the company,small paper mill,family owned since 1906.15 yrs ago we were in the top three pay scale for the Rochester NY local 832.Also split shop,4 boilermen are union,50 employees in paper mill are non-union.I am still grateful that I have a job.Company says they have no money for raises,ok fine.So we ask union rep to go try and make some policy changes ie.vacation policy,shift scheduling,personal day options etc,etc.Things that wont cost the company a dime.Does the union even try to do these requests,nooooooooo.Its pathetic.Then over the years I hear about all the big shot union guys down in the big city(New York)being arrested for fraud,stealing,mob association.It just infuriates me.Im not even sure if my reply relates to your original question,but when I read you mention unions I just wanted to rant and rave.
Thanks for listening.

Stan

Best thing to do would be contact the union you would be joining and ask them directly. They should not mind answering your questions and will have all the correct information, as this info. changes periodically. Dues are a small price to pay in order to achieve the pay and benefits you will receive. Just remember, give the company an honest 40, and they will give you an honest living.

You know? If one is willing to work, and willing to do some dangerous work, and be union, my guess is that you won't find better than the R.R. A few years back, a young punkster aquaintence of mine got himself a job with the Illinois Central R.R, or should I say, his uncle knew someone that got him on. Again, he was a punkster that would never make a white collar worker, and when it comes to organized blue collar, not even the phone company that I work for, or Edison, or NIPSCO (gas and electric) that I have friends working for...touch the R.R. So the punkster comes over, shows me what his retirement plan could or would look like if he had retired the day that he started, after 20 years. Between the R.R. pension, 401K, and 2 others, his monthly retirement would've been astronomical compared to any other blue collar job with the best utility. Knowing the punkster, I told him not to mess it up because he would never land a blue collar job like that again ever in this lifetime. He did it for a couple of years, then failed a drug test or few, lost his job, home, wife, two children, and has come stopped by a few times to knock to borrow gasoline money. The punkster blew it.

You hear about under funded pensions? I don't think you'll hear about that with the R.R. Congress has been trying unsuccessfully forever to get their grubby fingers on the R.R. pension and use and abuse it like Social Security, but somehow have always failed, thankfully. Something actually exists that Congress can't ruin, so I understand.

I also hear that across this country, the fellas working the R.R. are aging across the board and the R.R's are expecting to do a big hire to fill the upcoming retirees.

Its up to you. Good luck in your decision. If I were younger and had to do it all over again, chances are good that a R.R. pension might be in my future, working an often dangerous job that happens to be union.

Mark

Saw a while back on the news as how the railroad industry is running out of track across the country due to their up-swing. Sounded promising until you learned that it was due to all the import sea containers they are moving around. Give and take I guess.

Hi Wayne,

The cost of Union dues would be the last thing on my mind if I was in the working market. For the money you make, dues would be a small percentage of hours worked each month.

The RR has always been a great place to work. From the ones that I've known that worked for the RR, they had less complaints than I did.

About the only draw back I could see was they were gone during the week and home on week-ends ( the type of job they held)

I've been paying dues for 45yrs or so and it never bothered me.

T_Bone

Union dues=good investment!

I assume you are talking about maintenance of way jobs (working on track). They have better hours and payed less dues than operating employees where I worked. I paid $100 a month for them to tell us don"t bother them the biggest waste of my money ever but most of the time you have to join to work there. (closed shop). Also the railroad makes a difference which one are you looking at? DJ locomotive engineer 10 years.