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oogaboogie
07-01-2010, 08:03 PM
Anyone know anything about working at Altalink?

redblack
07-03-2010, 12:53 PM
I have been working at AltaLink for just about 4 years and my wife has been there for 2 years. We are a power transmission company. Overall working there has been great, lots of perks and time off. The company is steadily growing and most off the employees are younger in age. Is there any specific questions that you have?

oogaboogie
07-03-2010, 03:21 PM
Most of the positions they are hiring for are for 1-2 year terms. Do they usually let people go after their term or do they keep you on as a full time employee?

Also,
Do they offer stock options? Is medical and dental costs fully covered? How flexible are the work hours?

Cos
07-03-2010, 05:38 PM
What is the position? There aren't stock options from what I remember, benefits are good because it is union.

Hours are usually business hours unless you work in ops or have another arrangements.

rinny
07-03-2010, 06:17 PM
I would assume that the short term contracts are mainly using people for 500kv expansion and other bulk transmission upgrades going on around the province currently.

I guess it depends what position you are in and what terms of your employment are but it seems that most I know at AL are not on any sort of short-term contract like what you describe, with exception of Consultant/Project Manager roles.

Times could be changing though. Many in industry have said things like Altalink may change hands once the major upgrades in the next 5-10 years have finished- Similar to the way that TransAlta divided up its interests and sold off what is essentially Altalink now.

andre9000
07-03-2010, 06:41 PM
do u guys work in the same building as snc lavalin? those guys were all homos :rofl:

Cos
07-03-2010, 07:23 PM
.

oogaboogie
07-03-2010, 07:35 PM
Its a job in the operations dept.

I heard there was also a year end bonus... Would I be eligible for this?

FiveFreshFish
07-03-2010, 07:50 PM
Union or non-union position?

oogaboogie
07-03-2010, 11:05 PM
union

redblack
07-04-2010, 11:55 AM
term positions are only there because off the high workload that we have right now with all of the transmission upgrades. Once you get your foot in the door you can move around within the company easier. In my wife's department, one guy was on a 1year term but a full time position opened up and he got it right away.
No stock options. Benefits are through blue cross and is self directed, meaning they give you a certain amount of money per month for benefits and you select how much coverage you want. Anything left over goes into a health spending account that you can use for anything else that was not covered by your benefits Ie: you get 200 buck a year for glasses but you spent 400, you can use your health spending account to cover the rest.
Work hours depends on your manager. Some will allow you to start earlier in the day some will not.
Employees are unionized except for contractors, consultants and managment. Last i heard, they are trying to write in bonuses into the collective agreement for employees.

bluetek
07-04-2010, 12:14 PM
If you are in fact hired on as union here is the old agreement between UUWA and AltaLink. Personally, I found the union to be pretty useless during the term negotiations and if there was any grievances with employees. It all depends what position you will be in though.

http://www.uuwac.org/altalink/altalink.shtml

At the beginning of the year the two I believe signed a new agreement for the next 3 years. The link is for the old agreement from 2007-2009. The yearly rate increases are not as high in the current agreement.

For union dues I also believe they ask for 1% of your base pay.

FiveFreshFish
07-04-2010, 02:39 PM
Originally posted by redblack
Employees are unionized except for contractors, consultants and managment. Last i heard, they are trying to write in bonuses into the collective agreement for employees.

Engineers and financial/accounting/HR professionals are non-union and gets 20 days' vacation minimum.

Note there is also the IBEW union for those who work in the control centre. Triple time on holidays! Or at least that's how it was at TransAlta.

Unknown303
07-04-2010, 03:01 PM
Hey I work at Altalink!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

FiveFreshFish
07-04-2010, 03:44 PM
^^^ You've got that awesome workstation with a half dozen huge monitors. :poosie:

oogaboogie
07-04-2010, 03:46 PM
Do I have a choice in which union I belong to?

Is the UUWAC any good? Can I join IBEW as a guy in operations?

redblack
07-04-2010, 05:10 PM
I'm ibew working in the control center. Schedulers are Ibew as well, the rest are UUWA

variance
08-04-2010, 08:39 AM
.

sh0ko
08-04-2010, 10:39 AM
lol me 2 as a summer student! neato hi guys!