Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hard Times Mean A Chance To Grow

They took away the overtime at Jeff's mine as of Monday...This means that after you have worked your regular shift and are off for several days whatever your shift might be; you are not allowed to sign up for overtime hours right now. Most people work overtime for extra money. The price of copper is very low right now (below production) and they had to make some cuts. It could be worse. I think it will come back up eventually and they will lift the overtime ban in a month or so. Just goes to show that even a multi-billion dollar company can see a complete turnaround in a short period of time.
About two years ago Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold bought out the company Jeff was working for, Phelps Dodge, for $29 billion. They financed about $7.5 billion of that and it was paid off before one year. They have been giving bonuses and rewards to employees who have met criteria and kept a clean record. I hope they are able to continue that. So far this year Jeff has received two substancial bonuses and a couple smaller ones including a $500 Visa card and a leather bomber jacket in August for having a perfect record for the first six months of this year. It's nice.
Because Jeff has high seniority he is not in any real danger of being laid off; including if he transfers to the survey deprtment. We haven't heard anything on that yet. The other lucky news is that even though Jeff won't be able to work overtime, it comes at the same time as my paychecks from the college. (I only get paid twice per semester...November and December.) So we should still be able to get by without too many financial hiccups.
I am so grateful for the blessings the Lord has given us. I am thankful to be able to pay tithing and KNOW that rewards and blessings are coming from it. Jeff and I still have to work on SAVING money. It seems we always think of something we need as soon as we get paid. But one thing we have done right this year has been to build up our food storage. We are still not completely prepared for the worst but little by little we are getting there. It has already helped us out alot from when Jeff went hunting in September. No overtime plus out of state hunting tags and $3.50+ per gallon equals...using food storage for every meal. We survived and didn't hate it.

3 comments:

Laura said...

YOu guys are awesome!! Keep on keepin' on! ;)

Rachel said...

I can't believe what's going on at Freeport! It's crazy how fast things turned around. Hopefully it all turns back around just as quickly!

meghannamarie said...

I can't think of anything mean to say maybe next time! Hopefully things get better soon, not just for you but for everyone!