Crazy

"Things are starting to get crazy around here," Starner, my nominal supervisor, told me one day last week. "They're always crazy here," I replied. "We were supposed to have finished Sunday," he said. I didn't comment on this. I assumed he was referring to the aluminum part of the work our yard is doing, the repairs and "mods" to the ship's aluminum superstructure.

Even though Starner is practically useless - - he checks with me first thing in the morning, then disappears for the rest of the day - - at least he's no longer disrespecting me by assigning me to jobs that aren't up to my skill level. As for craziness, they've been trying to work the job seven days a week, 10 hours a day - - bringing some people in two hours early, while others have been working over two hours in the afternoon. I could do this if I wanted, but I don't. (Forty-eight hours a week is pretty much my max.) I don't know what these people do with their money. Most skilled workers in our yard gross over 40k per year on straight time. If they're married, most of their spouses work, also, often earning more than they do. Together, that's a pretty good family income. I guess they waste their money on a lot of stupid shit.

But working these hours always brings the same result - -people "laying out" even more than they normally would. Elmore, for example, worked the previous Saturday and Sunday for overtime pay, then laid out Monday and Tuesday (straight time pay). His son came in Monday but laid out Tuesday.

And we have the usual chaos. Most of the day Starner made his "crazy" statement, I spent waiting for a welder. One of the welding supervisors promised me a certain welder after he finished another job. Then the other welding supervisor took him and put him on something else. So the first one promised me I'd have a welder first thing the next day. But then he didn't come to work the next day and the second welding supervisor wouldn't honor the other's promise. For efficient production the shipfitting and welding needs to be coordinated and organized rationally. Where I work that rarely happens.

Yesterday I had a welder, but he couldn't weld because the riggers had removed from the ship the bottles of shielding gas for the wire-feed (MIG) welding machines used in the aluminum work. They did this in preparation for taking the ship out of drydock. But that's not happening for several days at least. So then they put a rack of bottles back on, but it turns out it was the rack of empties. I finally got the job done today. Who pays for this disorganization and inefficiency? The taxpayer, of course. Mr. Obama, are you reading this?