West Coast Fallers Pay

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slowp said:
You can watch Downton Abbey on line. Mystery! has a good series running with a really cute guy as the star, and he has a lab puppy.
Click to expand...

Nah, if I watched that show I'd have to quit watching World's Funniest Airplane Crashes on YouTube.

The cute guy wouldn't be much of a draw but the Lab puppy might be.
 
Shod said:
I've been cutting Timber for 28 years now. I've been in Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona. I've cut for almost all the Heli-Logging companies around Montana, Idaho, Oregon, yada, yada, yada and Yarders up and down the West Coast.

I wanted to share an observation I've recently made about a new area into which I've moved in northern Oregon on the coast. I'd also like to share an observations I've made around 17 years ago when working for a heli outfit close to Tillamook, Oregon. I'll start with the Tillamook experience.

Needless to say me and the Misses landed in Tillamook in September of 97. When we got to the job the Mill fella met us on the landing to go over specs. One point of interest was when the Mill fella requested that we please do not divolge to any of the local cutters how much we were making as there were local cutters on a job right next to us. At that time I remember the Elite cutter group that I tended to associate with had made a pact that we would not work for any less than $400 a day employee and the fact is that's what we got. It was a mentality of....this is dangerous and I'm worth my pay........Something many oldtimers used to proudly carry!

I was offered a full time job from the locals. I asked the pay and was replyed $150 a day. As you can imagine I damned need threw up! After all I had started my cutting career in Montana in 87 and by 1990 the pay was already at $225 a day.

You can imagine my surprise to discover that the proud tradition of the West Coast Cutter in Northern Oregon had no pride at all and the pride of those men showed in how much they thought they were worth. It was a slap in the face and a discrace to the heritage of the proud oldtimers whom emulated Moral fiber and true grit! It actually made me proud to be a Montana cutter at the time because at least Montana Men!!!!! Demanded a cutters wage!

Well for many years I steered clear of the Oregon Coast and often times the Washington Coast as it appeared to me that the degraded mentality had also swept over into Washington.

Well....recently I've found myself having moved to the northern Oregon coast to be closer to family, buy property, and settle into one place to live. I've made my retirement so at this point Money really isn't an issue. I would however like to point out an issue I've discovered soon once again inspecting the Proud Tradition of the Oregon West Coast Cutter.

Apon arriving I made a good many phone calls as I love my life as a cutter and I am truely proud to be a part of the heritage.

It was both sad and sickening for me to learn that many Oregon West Coast Cutters still considers a man to be worth less than a Montana cutter of little skill was worth more than 20 years ago.

My question is.....Really? Is this seriously what you believe you are worth? The Oregon West Coast Cutter......where men of high skill carry chainsaws with long bars falling big timber with 4 fourties.

Montana, where men pack small saws cutting lodgepole that are 60 ft tall.

Which Man would you rather be? If it is true that the defining mark of a real Man is whether they stand or squat to piss.

I'd rather pack a little chainsaw and cut lodgepole.


Shod
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Two words Supply and Demand...
and they do not care if you are a man or not.

That is what usually dictates pay, not attitude. might be some exceptions.
Just talking business 101.
 
bnmc98 said:
Two words Supply and Demand...
and they do not care if you are a man or not.

That is what usually dictates pay, not attitude. might be some exceptions.
Just talking business 101.
Click to expand...
Its pretty much 99% about supply and demand. In 2008 before the big crash the average cutter was well into there 50s. Now 7 years later most of them have retired along with a large number of cutters whom gravitated to the oil field in North Dakota. Now the logging industry appears to be making a slight attempt at a comeback. Even the slightest attempt is leaving the timber companies scrambling for cutters who no longer exist. The cutters pool is 1/3 of what it was in 2008.

Shod
 
Mr. Shod, you read like a faller with a PhD, or maybe a BA. Yah, BA fits this thread to a T. BA seems to have these fantacies of late that he is a pro logger or arborist, and starts these lead-in threads here on AS about it. BA = BS. Methinks you are pulling Bob's plonker here, and Randy has sniffed you out.

If I am wrong I will buy you a beer at my nieces bar over toward the coast.
 
windthrown said:
Mr. Shod, you read like a faller with a PhD, or maybe a BA. Yah, BA fits this thread to a T. BA seems to have these fantacies of late that he is a pro logger or arborist, and starts these lead-in threads here on AS about it. BA = BS. Methinks you are pulling Bob's plonker here, and Randy has sniffed you out.

If I am wrong I will buy you a beer at my nieces bar over toward the coast.
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I don't drink, nor do I frequent bars, thank you for the offer though.

Shod
 
Shod said:
I don't drink, nor do I frequent bars, thank you for the offer though.

Shod
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A faller that does not drink? In Oregon? I never met one.

BA, you are dropping the wrong terms in the wrong places here, and spelling them wrong. You lack the western and logger's dialect. I see you...
 
windthrown said:
A faller that does not drink? In Oregon? I never met one.

BA, you are dropping the wrong terms in the wrong places here, and spelling them wrong. You lack the western and logger's dialect. I see you...
Click to expand...
Ya well, I'm not from Oregon ya fum ducker. Not to mention I'm a true Gypo. That means I eat right,sleep right, don't drink, or use tobacco. You see cutting logs when trying to produce is a lot like an Olympic athlete trying to win a gold metal. The athlete who's frequenting the local bar usually is running a phucking mile behind. Trust me fella I already know what most these day wage slugs are up to. You don't understand my lingo because you don't understand Gypo mentality.

Hell, I think I'll just call my cutting partner high dollar Dave and well just cut these jobs the 2 of us. I know he can put a million a month on the ground by himself.

What's that going to take 8-10 of these day wage bar drinking slugs.

I'm outta here.

Shod
 
Shod said:
Ya well, I'm not from Oregon ya fum ducker. Not to mention I'm a true Gypo. That means I eat right,sleep right, don't drink, or use tobacco. You see cutting logs when trying to produce is a lot like an Olympic athlete trying to win a gold metal. The athlete who's frequenting the local bar usually is running a phucking mile behind. Trust me fella I already know what most these day wage slugs are up to. You don't understand my lingo because you don't understand Gypo mentality.

Hell, I think I'll just call my cutting partner high dollar Dave and well just cut these jobs the 2 of us. I know he can put a million a month on the ground by himself.

What's that going to take 8-10 of these day wage bar drinking slugs.

I'm outta here.

Shod
Click to expand...
Here's a history lesson in fallers lingo, in California there called Choppers, Alaska there called Bushlers. Washington there called Fallers, Oregon Coast there called day wage slugs. Some call em day hackers. Any way you look at it it stems from pure ass lazy!
 
Shod said:
Here's a history lesson in fallers lingo, in California there called Choppers, Alaska there called Bushlers. Washington there called Fallers, Oregon Coast there called day wage slugs. Some call em day hackers. Any way you look at it it stems from pure ass lazy!
Click to expand...

Wow, seems like any of us who do not meet your pay criteria is a waste of time for the industry and has a poor work ethic. who knew that if I demanded more money i was a better faller and worker than i am now.
boy i suck, maybe i'll go to the bar and drink cause thats all i'm good for.
 

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