Definition of dumbshits

[Obvious Li]

[size=150]For laid-off Caterpillar employees, the fall continues

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The Globe and Mail



Published Friday, Oct. 05 2012, 7:37 PM



Autumn typically spells new clothes for the kids, backpacks and fresh school supplies, the return to hockey season, dance classes, swimming lessons.



So it is this fall for hundreds of families in London, Ontario, a manufacturing and health-care hub in southwestern Ontario.



Caterpillar Inc. closed its 62-year-old locomotive plant in February, putting about 700 people out of work, including 485 unionized members. The heavy-equipment maker cited a need to stay competitive as the reason, and had asked its London workers to take pay cuts of up to 50 per cent. It is now beefing up operations in lower-cost centres in Muncie, Indiana and Sete Lagoas, Brazil.



Eight months later in Canada, the headlines have faded, the story largely forgotten.



But for many of the former workers at Electro-Motive Diesel, the grind only started with the job loss. As the severance runs out and bills pile up in a still-soft local jobs market, the financial and emotional strain is showing..............



Same thing that happened in BC when the dippers killed all the good paying lobs here....union mentality is...better to be unemployed from a $40 an hour job than to have a $25 an hour job and feed my family.....sick shit

[Obvious Li]

ust one in four of the factory's 485 unionized workers have found work since the plant shut its doors, according to the job action centre, whose staff phones them monthly to track their progress.



Of the ones who are working, 68 have full-time jobs, with the rest in part-time and contract positions or self-employment.



A bulletin board of job postings at the action centre reflects the tough jobs market. For London, there are about 20 postings pinned to the wall. Most are minimum wage, shift work or temporary.



"I'm sending my resume out, but there's nothing," says Ted Radaczynski, who had worked as a machinist. "Eleven or twelve dollars an hour, that's what there is if anything in London, Ontario."



Of the minority with full-time work, most have had to relocate or commute outside of the city. Fifty-five of them, all told, are working outside the city of London.



Severance has run out for all but 180 people, so the majority of people have been on jobless benefits since June.



London's jobless rate, at 8.5 per cent, is more than a percentage point above the national average.



It's not uniformly bleak; Ross Seeley, 53, a former pipefitter, is working part-time at a restaurant and taking care of his grandson. Brandy Damm, a former welder, has been working on call delivering the mail. She likes it, though she'd prefer more hours.



Yep...definitely much better off now....i bet they're really glad their union bosses were looking out for their best interests

[Obvious Li]

Machinists working for $11-$12/hour. Pipefitters working in restaurants? WTF??



If this story is genuine they must be real dipshits. Any pipefitter should be making $50/hour minimum. Any machinist can go to a shop in Nisku and come out with a $35/hour job. Difficult to feel empathy for anyone that bloody stupid.



BTW, how's ur Thanksgiving Obvious? I'm cooking a turkey and a ham today.

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I'M THINKING TURKEY STUFFED WITH KIM CHI OR POSSIBLY BOSHIN-TONG FOR ENERGY AND STAMINA......WE'LL SEE HOW IT GOES