shooter

that has been my experience with unions. When I read the post, I wasn't sure if I even wanted to respond. I'm not sure how I earned the $8000? The way I look at it, I had to double my loss for dealing with them again I wonder where all that non vested money goes? Maybe a union person could answer that for me....

back in the late 80s, I was hired on with a union sign company. It was about a three dollar per hour raise, I was happy and prounion! Two weeks after my hire date, when it came time to get paid, the boss called me into his office and asked if I wanted to join the union. I said, of course I do this is a union shop right? He then got out a piece of paper and started to write down the things he would have to pay if I join the union. He then said those things would come off the top of my agreed upon wage.I was also told that the company did not pay overtime, but were required to work it, and that the extra hours would be logged and paid out when it was slow. I still had my head full of prounion propaganda,so I sucked it up took a four dollar an hour hit, and joined the union. I knew that once I talked to my rep, things would get straightened out. I talked to my rep, and he assured me that things would get taken care. Nothing was. The only thing the union rep was concerned about was getting paid his dues.I worked at the company for close to two years until I found something else. I think I paid in close to $8000 into my retirement fund.there was a bunch of BS back then that you had to work in the union for 10 years before you could be vested in the union. I met multiple people later who had worked over nine years in the union, and were mysteriously laid off prior to being vested. That is money that I will never see. Fast forward to 1991, and I am laid off at my current job. I still have my brushes and paint, that's right, old-school, and Minnesota sign company is born. I maintain my union membership, with the hopes of someday recouping that $8000. As a self-employed union member, it's not as expensive to be in the union. A large neon job at a local casino comes up, and union membership is a requirement. I was pretty naïve back then, so I put in about 40 hours into detailed scale drawings, designs, and bids. The other company was nonunion, and considerably far away. I talked to my new union rep and asked him to check on the job. He assures me that I will get the job because the other company is nonunion. He then goes to the other company and signs them up to the union! they also mysteriously end up with my drawings and specifications. I am not sure how much if any kickbacks he got, the only thing he was concerned with was padding his own pocket. my graduation from the school of hard knocks in the union area was complete, or so I thought. Now, fast forward to about 1998, my company has grown to 12 to 15 employees, and built a manufacturing facility. I don't have a big pool to draw from, so I trained in a lot of inexperienced people. One such person, thought that after 3 to 6 months of training, he should be paid as an experienced installer. This individual also thought he knew better ways of doing things, and routinely disregarded installation specifications and did them his way. I am pretty fed up with him, but haven't taken the time to find and train a replacement. Then, my old union rep visits my installers on a job site. Of course he promises them the moon and the sun and the stars, and this individual takes it hook line and sinker. I would also like to add that this meeting took place on a job site when I was paying them to do a job. He gets back to the office and demands to join the union. I told him that my company was not going union, but he was more than welcome to join the union on his own dime and be a self-employed union person. He does so, and starts demanding union wages. I have been documenting his poor performance up to a point, but now I get anal about it. I document everything. He goes out to install a pylon sign, and was specifically told in writing to weld in the inside ring that sleeves into the pole. He has argued with me before about the necessity for this. I also explained to the other employee that this needs to be done. He does it his way with out the ring,and he is fired. The next day, I received a visit from the union rep. He tries to strong-arm me into joining the union. He says the only reason said employee was fired, was because he joined the union. If I didn't sign my whole company up for the union, he would file a complaint with the state labor board, and that it would be a lot cheaper just to join the union. I politely and diplomatically told him that that was not going to happen. Asked him to leave my property and not come back or he would be charged with criminal trespass. Long story short, that cost me about $8000 in legal fees. As long as I remain at the helm, the union will not be allowed on my property.

most of the time during the day we don't see the game fish. We will see a lot of times dust clouds on the bottom where they took off. If we find some good structure we sometimes see fish or if we dive at night. we are pretty large and noisy with the bubbles so most of the time they spook

good luck fishing! you probably liked seeing the auger from the reverse angle! Whenever I am driving on the ice, I never have my seatbelt on and I usually have my windows down. If it is really hairy, I will have a pony scuba bottle next to me, and the door cracked open with my hand on it

thanks, I normally prefer the ocean with the warm water. But living in Minnesota, play the cards I was dealt and the dive were opportunity presents itself. I would much rather rely on a rope that is tethered to me, then any electronics to get me back to the hole. As far as I am aware, I don't believe there is GPS technology that works for a diver underwater. There was no warm water! LOL. The structure was created by the ice expanding as it froze and having nowhere to go. The different layers you see are fragments of ice. Some of them are solid, and some of them are loose.my dive lasted only 25 min. I had a small leak in my dry suit glove causing me to abort the dive early. My longest dive under the ice was 93 min. I normally dive nitrox and was on a 39% mix on this dive. we use hand and foot warmers insider dry suit at different locations on our body. The oxygen enriched air really heats them up! I am also a lot less tired diving nitrox. We use an dive rite HD cave canister style light.I have logged hundreds of dives under the ice, and this was by far the coolest structure I have ever seen on the bottom of the ice. We were actually swimming through the crevices. we will be heading back this weekend, to dive the structure we planned on diving last weekend. I would love to dive and explore some of the glacier formations.

yes, It gets pretty slow here in the wintertime.not very many installations scheduled..... With the right amount of equipment and training it's really not that bad. The only exposed flesh is on my face. It's stings for a little while and then goes numb, kind of like a trip to the dentist office.as far as seeing fish, this dive was about filming towards the surface,as far as you being disappointed, honey badger dive team don't care I used to dive for the local sheriff's department. In one season I think we had close to 18 hours under the ice. It's like anything, the more you do it the easier it is.

my buddy and I were planning a dive trip to a local fishing lake last Saturday. He was doing some research online about the lake and came across Jupiter entertainment that was filming an upcoming reality TV show called "ice holes". On the website they said they were looking for interesting characters. I laughed when he told me that and I said you might as well send them an e-mail and tell them we are going to be diving in the area. They contacted us back right away and asked if we could do some underwater filming for them. We were planning on diving some cars sized boulders in a fishing hotspot. They wanted us to dive a pressure ridge that they had been building bridges across all season. For my warm weathered brothers, a pressure ridge is created when the ice freezes,expands and has nowhere to go. We said no problem.I was surprised seeing all the underwater structure. I have hundreds of ice dives under my belt and 99.9% of them the bottom of the ice is flat smooth. Here is the footage that we shot, it's a little long but an interesting view,especially, if you have ever ice fished. :lol:

I forwarded the email to the bbb. Hopefully they catch them. Here is the response.... Dear Consumer: Recently you forwarded one or more phishing emails to phishing@council.bbb.org. The emails purported to come from Better Business Bureau, but they are bogus. As you may recall, some or all of your emails were blocked because they carried an attached virus. This email is to advise you that although your emails were blocked, we have been able to recover them. The information you forwarded has been very helpful, and we thank you for forwarding it to us. To learn more about the bogus BBB phishing scam, you can visit http://www.bbb.org/us/alert-phishing-scam-looks-like-bbb-email/. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Regards, Clifford Kurt | Technical Support Engineer Tel: 703-247-9391 Fax: 703-525-8277 Email: ckurt@council.bbb.org www.bbb.org | Start with Trust Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. 3033 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600 Arlington, VA 22201

http://minnesota.bbb...t-Its-Not-37704 Heads up I opened one up this morning, thankfully virus scan stopped it. Caught me off gaurd, I couldn't think for the life of me who would have filed a complaint

Pack your bug-out bag and start prepping. Get your guns and ammo while you still can unless you are in CA, in that case get pointy scissors before they are banned....

iphone with blue tooth

I got my humble beginnings in the sign biz painting signs on water towers and grain elevators back in the late 80's. We would sandblast them and paint them etc. As long as we were up there, we would paint the lettering! A sign shop would supply the pounce pattern. The sign painting was much more enjoyable, as you can imagine, and the pay was the same. Last week I found myself coming full circle...... It probably took a good 15 mins for my knees to quit shaking..... What you see in the pic is us applying computer cut paint mask. I just happened to be the same color as the stripe. The town is Lindstrom, MN " America's Little Sweden"

You sure like your channel bond! I fabricated a similar type sign. Instead of the tabs, I cut strips of polycarb and bent them at a 90 deg in the brake making poly carbonate "angle". For the curved letters I ran it through the notcher! I used a similar product to channel bond and chemically welded the angle all the way around. Made for some beefy letters. . The job was on a high rise and we installed them from a window washer scaffolding. They still look good 15 years later. Nice work and congrats on your new business venture.

its just like weld on 3. I use it in place of weld on 3 and still go over with weld on 16. works great

methelene chloride works good too. also bonds polycarb to polycarb. 5 gallons, under $100. pretty much a lifetime supply for me. Might not be legal in CA though.... Can you show a shot of the ingredients?

I am looking for this program. I have it on my computer now, but need to install on a new computer and I don't have any discs or security keys. I purchased the program from my sign supplier who sold me my Roland printer, and they are no longer in business. My main design program is gerber, but they in their infinite wisdom will not allow their software to interface with any non-Gerber items, like my printer. Any help would be greatly appreciated as my current computer is on life support, and may take its last breath at any moment.

Probably senses moisture? How do I add a pic, or did I lose that privelege with my rabble rouser status?

"When table saws are outlawed, only outlaws will operate them" I think that they should require people who operate them to attend a training course so they can be licensed and bonded in tablesaw operation. Anyone caught operating a tablesaw without this piece of paper should be immediately locked up. Maybe something similar to the requirements in your state for building and installing signs would be appropriate. This will ensure that the public is protected, and that no one finds a finger in their sign.

+1

I was definitely feeling it too. I picked up sweet part-time gig doing boat patrol for the Sheriff's Department on weekends. Yeah that's right, wearing a badge, driving a squad truck and the patrol boat, enforcing the law . After working outside last week repairing storm damage, then 16 hours in the sun on boat patrol, I ended up with heatstroke! Got sick on Sunday night and felt like I'd been worked over with a baseball bat on Monday with a migraine headache that just went away yesterday. One minute I was sweating the next i was shivering! Finally feeling better today. Be careful and stay hydrated.....

LOL!! I wonder if his bike is OSHA and DOT approved? what I am curious to know is if you wore the spandex uniform along with your sign install in the Cayman Islands? I doubt it. Do we have to have another license for bikes yet? if we don't, I think we should especially if you're going to be pulling a trailer. He should probably be arrested and jailed for not meeting the government requirements! At least he's wearing a helmet, that is probably another government requirement depending on your location.

the methylene chloride he is referring to here is the same product that will bond lexan together.

+ 1 "world headquarters" seems to come to mind when I was building my current manufacturing facility. Now I think I've gone full circle to the founding principles of my company, work less, fish & dive more

not to jack your thread but I have a useless piece of information regarding the bonefish grill If You've Been to the Bonefish Grill you may have noticed their fish rubbings. It is a very cool process using rice paper and the actual fish prior to being fileted. I happen to know the artist from my Florida fishing connections. He put in a request for a walleye. I furnished him with a nice one that yours truly caught on a Canadian fishing trip! We don't have many of them around here so if anybody sees one take a picture of it for me. "Reviewed By Dr. Joseph S. Maresca Go to the Bonefish Grill for a wide selection of food including grilled fish, sirloin steak, filet mignon, Lile's chicken and filet and crab. The menu provides gluten-free choices for people having food sensitivities . The grilled fish is offered sauteed and baked with a variety of soups and greens. Patrons have a selection of wine and Martinis. There is a very helpful website locator so that first time visitors are able to locate the nearest Bonefish Grill. The site displays the Gyotaku art of making fish prints on rice paper for interested artisans. "

Nice screen name.