# Trade retention



## brin11 (24 Aug 2003)

Hi, as the new moderator I felt it was only appropriate to start a new discussion.

I would like to know your feelings on trade retention in the CSS.  Do you feel that certain trades are being paid adequately in comparison to the civvy world?  Also, hence a recent discussion on spec pay, would this be an incentive to any of you?

A specific reserves question:  are you being used well in your units?  For example, are you being used for in-trade tasks as much as possible or are you spending most of your time in another area?  I would appreciate any and all responses to these questions.


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## 762gunner (27 Aug 2003)

Hooboy, I think you‘re really opening a can of worms.  Where to start?
     Well, at one Edm svc bn, they‘ve gone from a platoon of maintainers and a coy FULL of truckers to less than half a dozen veh techs, and about three truckers.
     Why?
     EME has had a LOT of superbly qualified people from civvie St come in.  But they‘ve been jacked around for years:  courses not being run for years or cancelled at the last moment after the mbr quits a job just for that course, inability for the Ossifers to set up an SSS account so the techs can order their own #&*@$&%$ lightbulbs not to mention REAL veh parts, their MRT being rellocated to another Res F svc bn because they‘re next to a Res F Bde HQ, a severe shortage of trucks, inability of MSS to keep our overused veh from breaking down (though they try), lack of access to current resources controlled strictly by MSS, lack of leadership, direction, and guts at the SNCO and Officer level.  On and on and on.  Get this:  weapons techs are NOT allowed to touch weapons.  So they left.
     As for truckers: lack of money to parade more than once a month, but most officers and SNCO‘s come in every Wed (Admin) night, again a lack of direction and leadership, wimpy pointless weekend ex‘s run from  Sat morning to Sat night (what the heck is the point?) again the inability for drivers to maintain their own trucks, improper and incorrect training, serious lack of support and professionalism from the micromanaging RSM.  Resources distributed very unevenly in the Res Bde.  And they have more officers than they have Jr Ranks, with more joining shortly.
     On and on and on...
     There are ideas to have regular stables (but without any EME support of course) to maintain the trux, and there are other ideas in the works.  One Major is trying to turn things around, but he‘s pissin‘ in the wind.  Nothing has been put on paper as it‘s pointless.  With just a handful of Jr Ranks in all trades, it might be best to pull the plug on the unit and move the workers somewhere they would be more useful.
     This unit goes through RSS staff like most people go through air.  They get P.O.‘ed with the leadership (or lack thereof) and get posted out, or pull the pin.  Two have been there for perhaps a year, an incredible record.
     No wonder the Reg F thinks those seriously dedicated blue-collar-type Res F workers are just weekend wannabe‘s.
     Thanks for my $0.02.

     It would save a LOT of cash on those Wed parade nights.


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## Eowyn (1 Sep 2003)

Brin11

You did open a can of worms.  Within the Reserve world, the CSS doesn‘t get utilized enough within their trades.  One of the reasons for this is that the courses are too long for most Reservists, or not run at all.  Another is that over a weekend, the combat arms doen‘t really need support.  The trick there is to get the other units to think of logistics too.  I find the Armoured are better at this than the Infantry.

Especially for the Maintainers, it is hard for them to do their trade with limited budgets, lack of spare parts and turf wars with ASG.  Out in the field, on specific ex-RegF personel are aloud to do any recoveries with the HL Wrecker.

Capt Canuck

Most of the problems with the Maintainer‘s getting screwed is out of the hands of the Svc Bn.  Most of it has to do with CFSEME or ASG.  Maybe the officers tried to get a SSS were turned down.  Again a decision outside of the Bn.  The MRT being reallocated is also a higher level decision.

It isn‘t just the Edmonton Svc Bn that has had a drop in numbers.  That has occurred where I‘m at too.  There is something about the unavailability of courses, a good economy and lots of notional trg to work against retention.


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