We are able to "bank" vacation. It's a nice bonus thing to have. We can "bank" 2X what you earn per year. Average YOS of the plant is now at around 25 years and almost everyone is earning 5 weeks vacation. And most have 10 Weeks in their bank.
New policy mandated as of last year. The bank is closed. 1/2 of your bank must be exhausted this year as well as 1/2 next year. Meaning most of the people in the plant will have to exhaust 10 weeks of vacation this year (2.5 months) - or effectively we are staffed at approximately 80%.
No one liked the policy change, but it is helping keep us a float right now when volumes are at 40-50% of what they were compared to a year ago.
Announced last week on top of the "no pay increases this year and probably next year"... was that all hourly worker jobs will be re-evaluated for complexity and job grades may be dropped for certain jobs - that means that on top of no increases for the last 3 years for our hourly workforce, they are probably staring at a pay cut in the next few months.
That's hard to swallow for a lot of 25 year employees who are still 10 to 15 years away from retirement and would probably have a hard time finding a job now due to their skill level and experience.
Oh and gas jumped 15cents in the last couple weeks here.
*SMILE* this sucks, at least it's Friday and the liquor store is on the way home.
