Shit .. and I thought I earned good coin...

[kevfromcoro]

Working on a large site at the moment..
to-night i went upstairs ,, and was chatting to a mob of welders.
as we do.. they are doing 84 hours a week.. and getting paid $70 an hour
not to bad for a weeks wage in old NZ

[hospitalfood]

14 hour day,six days a week.............tough

[kevfromcoro]

14 hour day,six days a week.............tough

Yeah its hard going allright.....
these guys are doing 7 12 hr shifts
couldnt do it for to long

[junkmanjoe]

on the radio other day. under water welders in the oil fields.
spend 6 months under water, they live down there..and earn $84,000 us for there time.

that would be a tough job

[Timber020]

I would want twice that with all the crap they breath in and having to do epic size runs all day long. Takes a whole different type of thinking to do that kind of work for that kind of time. I get antsy after a dozen rods.

I do know some underwater welders who worked on rigs in the past. Guys just dissappear at depth. They get the narcs, take there gear off hundreds of feet down and go for a swim. I met one guy who looked 60 and was only in his 30's.
They used to spend weeks down in the bell with 3 others on shifts. Its like a small prison with time off for welding in the big dark wet stuff. Screw that.

[Blackbird]

Working on a large site at the moment..

No 1 Mill maintenance Shut at CHH Pulp and Paper Kinleith?

[JimO]

the tax man will be rubbing his hands together, 70 ah hr isnt that flash some jobs i make over 300

[jrandom]

Tough job. They earn those dollars.

Then again, not all tough jobs get paid well. And not all well-paying jobs are tough.

Either way, good shit. This country needs less lawyers and more welders.

[Oakie]

Yeah its hard going allright.....
these guys are doing 7 12 hr shifts
couldnt do it for to long

And you have to ask yourself "what is the quality of the work they are producing at the end of 12 hours and at the end of 7 days straight?"

[Blackbird]

And you have to ask yourself "what is the quality of the work they are producing at the end of 12 hours and at the end of 7 days straight?"

Valid point but if it's Marine level welding, which I suspect it is for that rate; at least the welds are all radiographed before they're passed. In support of what you're saying though, there was a reasonable percentage of remedial work on pressure welding when I used to look after the maintenance shuts for my old company.

[Pussy]

I'm with Blackbird on this.
I have worked 12 hour shifts doing boiler tube work.. every weld was x-rayed.
Leaky boiler tubes are bad! Boiler go boom!
You earn the coin working in some very tight space in a used boiler

[AllanB]

the tax man will be rubbing his hands together, 70 ah hr isnt that flash some jobs i make over 300

So jumjim are you a lawyer or a Porsche mechanic?

[Jonno.]

Or an escourt?

[JimO]

So jumjim are you a lawyer or a Porsche mechanic?

no just a humble tradesman but quoted jobs can earn some serious money but if you cock the qoute up it can work the other way

[Naki Rat]

And you have to ask yourself "what is the quality of the work they are producing at the end of 12 hours and at the end of 7 days straight?"

For that sort of money they would be expected to have minimal (<2%) failure rate on the welds, which would undoubtedly be fully xrayed. It takes a bloody good welder to maintain that sort of standard so yes they are worth those dollars as the cost of rewelds on such projects are usually much more expensive in terms of lost plant production time.

Also there is a shortage of welders (like many trades) in NZ and the imported guys from Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands mostly don't measure up in terms of weld failure rates.