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Alex · 03-14-2007, 10:38 PM

I don't know. How bad does it sound?

It was bad but probably not in the ways you're thinking. I saw nothing that would disabuse me of eating canned fish. It was a clean mechanical process.

What was bad were the hours. They tell you that you can make a lot of money over a summer but what they don't really mention is because of the hours. Base pay was $6/hour and overtime was $9. Overtime kicked in for hours after 9 in a single day and hours after 40 in a week. The week started on Monday and I'd be completely on overtime by late morning on Wednesday.

I worked from 6am to Midnight for 43 straight days (and I mean straight, no weekends off). I was in a quality assurance position (these jobs required being able to speak English so tended to be the few positions operated by Americans and paid $0.50 cents more since I was responsible for USDA required paperwork) so I got a bit of time off my feet.

Meals were not provided and the only grocery store in Kodiak was open from 6:00 a.m. to Midnight. So there were days where I lived only on candy bars from the vending machines. And I could never do laundry.

I was so exhausted that one time, when a line worker poached the skin off his arms by dunking them in a vat of near boiling water (it wasn't supposed to be more than 110 degrees) my first thought was that if had been me (and it could have been anybody he was just the first one to the rinsing sink at break) I would get to go to the hospital and sleep.

So it was bad because of the workload, which was somewhat worse for QA since there were 8 QA stations and they'd hired 9 people allowing everybody one day off per week. But the extra guy quit early in the summer so we didn't get a day off (line workers got one day out of eight; lived in a nearby campground and had wives who stayed in the campground taking care of the essentials like cooking, laundry, and shopping).

But it did not suck because of the work environment, messy conditions, smell, or anything else. The 9 months of the year the cannery is on a slower workload of halibut and crab would be great but the salmon run only lasts so long and there are a lot of them out there.

All in all, it is an experience I'm glad to have had. Also, if I hadn't I'd have never peed on a sea lion. And that is something everybody should be able to claim. Or watched a guy parallel park a 400 foot boat in a space about 450 feet long without ever touching the dock.

03-14-2007, 10:38 PM	#46
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	I don't know. How bad does it sound? It was bad but probably not in the ways you're thinking. I saw nothing that would disabuse me of eating canned fish. It was a clean mechanical process. What was bad were the hours. They tell you that you can make a lot of money over a summer but what they don't really mention is because of the hours. Base pay was $6/hour and overtime was $9. Overtime kicked in for hours after 9 in a single day and hours after 40 in a week. The week started on Monday and I'd be completely on overtime by late morning on Wednesday. I worked from 6am to Midnight for 43 straight days (and I mean straight, no weekends off). I was in a quality assurance position (these jobs required being able to speak English so tended to be the few positions operated by Americans and paid $0.50 cents more since I was responsible for USDA required paperwork) so I got a bit of time off my feet. Meals were not provided and the only grocery store in Kodiak was open from 6:00 a.m. to Midnight. So there were days where I lived only on candy bars from the vending machines. And I could never do laundry. I was so exhausted that one time, when a line worker poached the skin off his arms by dunking them in a vat of near boiling water (it wasn't supposed to be more than 110 degrees) my first thought was that if had been me (and it could have been anybody he was just the first one to the rinsing sink at break) I would get to go to the hospital and sleep. So it was bad because of the workload, which was somewhat worse for QA since there were 8 QA stations and they'd hired 9 people allowing everybody one day off per week. But the extra guy quit early in the summer so we didn't get a day off (line workers got one day out of eight; lived in a nearby campground and had wives who stayed in the campground taking care of the essentials like cooking, laundry, and shopping). But it did not suck because of the work environment, messy conditions, smell, or anything else. The 9 months of the year the cannery is on a slower workload of halibut and crab would be great but the salmon run only lasts so long and there are a lot of them out there. All in all, it is an experience I'm glad to have had. Also, if I hadn't I'd have never peed on a sea lion. And that is something everybody should be able to claim. Or watched a guy parallel park a 400 foot boat in a space about 450 feet long without ever touching the dock.
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