How recent changes affect 'newer' hourly employees

Why you should care and get involved as a Step 1/2/3

You got bait'n'switched worse than a used car salesman-

You had years of experience, seniority, and comfort where you used to work, you gave all that up to come here knowing that you'd be starting over from the bottom. You took a paycut to come here, but it was going to be worth it in the long run because after 4-6 years, you'd be a Step 5 and working for good pay with a great company. Well that's over, you'll never make the inflation adjusted equivalent of a Step 5, never, it doesn't matter if you're an ass-kicking go-getter- the company has flat out told you that you're overpaid and they are going to fix that. The 'sliding scale' of pay increases based on grade progressions, performance reviews and how 'over paid' you are 'compared to our peers' is designed to screw you over. How much of a yearly paycut did you take to come here and start over? $10K? $20K? more? We'll dig into the math on another post- but the bottom line is this- they fucked you worse than a used car salesman, the sleeziest salesman might have bait'n'switched you for $10-15K on a car lot, our management just drew you away from your previous employer with promises that turned out to be lies that will cost you tens or hundreds of thousands over the life of your career here.

Your funnel for advancement just got impossibly tight-

Are you a bright, hard charging, over-achiever that has management aspirations? Are you a 29 year old operator that could see yourself being a Operations Superintendent some day? Or maybe just one hell of a talented lead tech? Well, I have some bad news for you- the funnel from technician to supervisor just got squeezed impossibly thin. There were 24 maintenance leads and 28 operations leads positions across the facilities in our field. Now there are 9-10 maintenance 'senior techs' and 6 senior operators..... that's one hell of a narrow alley way to squeeze through before you can get a supervisor job. Good luck with that.

You are no longer going to be trained by the specialist-

You know a lot about your trade, that's why you got hired over all the other highly qualified candidates, but you don't know the 'in and outs' of this field. There is a ton of 'quirks' and particularities that you'll have to learn to keep things running safely and not be 'that guy' that gets something named after you. Luckily for you, you're been trained by leads that are specialists not only in your trade, but in THIS field. They've literally crawled over every inch of their generators, compressors and plants, not ANY compressors, THIS compressor. They have nick names for every troublesome part that they've troubleshot dozen of times, they've lost sleep solving problems that you've never even imagined. In short- they are the fountain of knowledge that you've been drinking from....and now they're gone. Who's the plant operator this week? Maybe a guy with lot of experience in the area, maybe "Joe Random" that just bounced over from the Saltwater Treatment Plant or a drillsite position. Sure they're signed off to operate the area and they are competent, but they're not THE GUY. Are you going to get better training from a lead that can work with you consistently week after week or from 6 "joe randoms" that bounce through playing musical chairs plant operator?

You are no longer going to be working with world-class professionals-

You work with guys that are 15, 20 and 25 year employees, truly a world class workforce who had years of experience RIGHT HERE. Why? Because these were great paying jobs for a company that respected us, and our expertise. But moving forward, as 'mid range wage' employees, what will keep a guy from bouncing to different field? Or a job closer to home? Will people make the 20 year sacrifice to come here if they can get 3-4 years experience here then take a job down the road from their house at similar wage? This was the "end of the road", this was the job that people worked years to get because it was good compensation for working somewhere slightly more hospitable than the moon. But soon it will just be a stepping stone to something better- that's not way to retain a world-class workforce.

You are no longer going to be working with full-time professionals-

What does "flexible staffing levels" and "a contingent workforce" actually mean? It means part-time technicians that will bounce in and out of positions, with limited craft experience, limited 'time in field' and zero ownership. I won't use the word 'scabs' because that's not fair to them, scab has a very negative connotation, and these guys aren't that. These guys are 'apprentices' who are learning our trades and putting in the hours it takes to build a knowledge base. But they're not seasoned professionals in permanent positions, they're band-aids, they will be bounced around, ripped off from here and stuck on there, they will be used and disposed by the company and they'll have carrots full of lies dangled in front of them- the logical outcome is unexperienced workers who are willing to take great risks as part of an attempt to advance their careers. I can point you toward 30 different Chemical Safety Board videos that will show you how that ends.

Your 401(K) is taking a hit too-

There's a lot of 'guarantee' that isn't guaranteed. You have a certain % guaranteed right? That's great! But remember, if your base payrate doesn't grow, or doesn't grow at the rate that you were promised when you hired on, that percentage suffers too. For instance 6% of $200,000 is $12,000... well you STILL get 6% (or whatever), but 6% of $100,000 is $6,000. Don't let any "But you're still getting XX percent, that hasn't changed!" line fool you, they cut your pay and your future pay potential and that means they cut your 401(k).

Remember these are the GOOD times, we're not a company on the ropes.

According to our annual earnings report to investors we generated $20.3 BILLION cash from operations, distributed $9.1 billon to shareholders...repurchased $5.1 billion in stocks.... The bottomline is: as a company we had a net income of $9.2 BILLION last year.

And Alaska is no money pit, according to our 2024 earnings new release- we reported a net income of $1.3 billion, and our AK president called it 'an exceptional year'. I mean, they could be lying though I don't think the SEC is too fond of companies lying on financial disclosures or press releases... but they did lie to us, so maybe they're lying to the feds and stock market too. But if they're not lying- we just finished up an "exceptional year" here in Alaska, so these are the GOOD times, just think what they're going to steal from you when times actually get tough.