truck accessory installer

loader

installer

warehouse/driver

warehouse worker

Auto Warehousing Company

I absolutely loved the Administrative Support position and could have done it forever if the company wasn't so terrible to work for. 
Consistently unprofessional, folx yelling at each other all of the time (but telling me to "calm down" if I got upset when getting yelled at), openly racist behavior and comments, management doesn't take concerns seriously, they ignore COVID-19 precautions and ridicule people for wanting to take care of themselves. HR discusses employee medical issues out in the open where everyone can hear them, they laugh at their employees health problems and life circumstances, treat everyone as guilty until proven innocent, unwilling to make reasonable accommodations for folx with invisible disability, forced folx to work in the yard in hazardous wildfire air conditions, and offer no support for families during this COVID crisis and no support for folx who test positive (most of the management walks around the office without masks on talking about how COVID is a hoax). 
I had to quit under duress due to harassment from HR regarding my chronic illness and disability accommodations. 
Overall, this was honestly the worst place I have ever worked. I wish that it wasn't so because as I said, I could have done the job forever if the people weren't horrible to me. 

You can work a lot of hours, and overtime pays, of course, time and a half.  There are primarily two roles you can play: shagger or loader.  Shaggers move cars around parking lots, between parking lots, and park cars.  It is about the easiest job in the world, albeit mind-numbingly boring.  You are transported to your cars via a van, and the crew you share a van with will have a tremendous impact on your work experience.  Loaders drive new automobiles onto rail cars.  It is a very fast-paced, physical job.  You will sweat like a pig when its warm, and freeze when its cold.  You will work on the second or third decks of railcars, jumping between them.  Don't slip - it could be fatal.  Loaders get paid a few dollars more than shaggers, but the job is multiples more demanding.  Loaders is a young-man's game, and shaggers is a job for retired people.  Don't expect to advance - this company parks cars - end of story.  The employee pool pulls from the bottom of the barrel.  Mid-level management is the exception.  I liked the managers quite a bit, and they empathize with any difficulties you may have.   Their hands are tied by corporate.     

* in one day-18 people who had signed on through upto 3  
  agencies, didn't show up.
* former employee had put in enough time to promote into position
  of department lead-not only was cut from so-but the entire crew he  
  was with-had been also (due each being abled to qualify for 
  benefits) 
 *people who are there as temps-try to play chief, with no authority
   to drive around other temps..
   these statements are just a few mentioned-to give overview of the  
   company's culture-through the sub-ordinates' behave/low    
   information, non-egalitarian posture.
   it is caustic, abusive and low paying. even if by some cases that
   our economy is tough to gain money through-to the tune of: 50k a 
   year here in the bay area (even if you will afford to take on being 
   one or sub-letting housemates to save money) which indeed is 
   small potatoes, money made needs to feel well gained-not ill-gotten
   for so tolerated-the lost will show up in exacerbate elsewhere.  
   promised. 
   so be somewhere else-rather permanently.

The work is fairly easy, however when they have you assigned to a role that would pay higher rate for the day, if you are a newer hire they will reposition you to a role that pays less, Positions have different pay rates for the day. I was hired to be a Locator when I was applied as a Surveyor, they are positions that pay the same but have fairly different tasks. 

The misleading aspect is that during the new hire process and interview they never stated the fact that you will not be in the position you were hired for quite a while, the pay for Moving cars - which is the task you will generally work pays around $20.80 an hour, while Surveyor/Locator pays $24.03 per hour. The employees with higher seniority, which is everyone will work the job you were hired until either - They quit or are absent, which usually only happens with the employees who have been there for 20+ years, and you would still have to wait for the new hires that came before you to take the roles first.

AWC is not a terrible company to work for unless you are very young, no skills and haven't worked for any good large corporation before.  This company has no value in their people, they are driven like cattle to a slaughter with no job security.  Ask yourself why they are always posting this job position?  because they have a very high turnover rate.  You will sacrifice family time as you never know when the end of the day is going to be until 8 minutes prior to when they yell it out anywhere between 3:30pm and 5:30pm (so don't make dinner plans).  You are just a number and get criticized daily on your production percentage.  They instill fear tactics into employees by giving them threatening letters of poor performance and if you get a certain number of letters, your fired.  I feel sorry for some of the great people whom I worked with at this company.  No I am not a disgruntled employee, I did not get fired and the only letter I got was when I got sick and decided to suck it up and go to work anyway and was given a disciplinary letter for being to slow that week.

It's an ok place to work. My biggest complaints are favoritism is shown to anyone willing to compromise there dignity and kiss butt. It's a union shop and punishments are always dished the same across the board but rewards and advancement go to the few and those rewards are often not justifiable. The local union 305 is not that great either at representing us and they scare employees into voting for substandard contracts so they can do the least amount of work possible. Coworkers are generally pretty good people to get along with and can make for a fun place to work at times. Overtime comes and go's and you can be forced to work over any day of the week and be forced to work a lot of Saturdays, but as you gain seniority you have more power to choose if you work weekends or not. If you need a job the pay will be enough for a while. However, with the cost of living in the PDX area; weak pay increases every year, and our benefits to be scaled back every contract it makes sense for a lot of people to leave for greener pastures as of late.

They go through hundreds of people. The new people never last because they only work them long enough to train them then they're the lowest person on the totem pole. It happen to me. They told me I would need a part time job and if they don't work me 80 hrs a month I lose my benefits for me and my family. They didn't say anything to me about this until orientation day. They told me If I get a second job and I'm schedule to work for that job, but they call me in I have to show up or I'll receive a point. 6 points and they let you go. The job was absolutely not worth it to me and I got sick of the lies. I had no schedule for a job that can work you 7 days a week. They wouldn't let me know if I was working till 7 o'clock at night throught a text. Then they just kept working me 14 days in a row. So I couldn't plan anything because I never knew if I was gonna work and if I didn't work I never knew how long I wasn't gonna work. The job was hard and not worth it to me. It was super stressful and hard on me and my family. I wouldn't recommend this job to anyone.

A typical day at work started with opening railcar doors.  Then moving onto collapsing chocks in order for the new vehicles to be offloaded.  Once the chocks are removed from the wheels, the offloading process begins.  I have learned a lot about AAR audits and the different manufacturers offloading requests, as well as being able to test drive the different makes and models of vehicles.  The management was very bland as well as the higher up management that was based in other locations.  The coworkers were young kids and there was a high turnover rate which made things difficult to get good quality employees.  The hardest part of the job was collapsing the chocks.  Its very hard on your body and can sometimes last 4+ hours each morning.  The most enjoyable part of the job was getting to test drive the different makes and models of vehicles that came in.

AWC has been a good company to work for. I would not say it's perfect but I was able to grow and develop my skills in the world of automotive logistics. The one thing that could be done better is how they treat the associates. The associates work really hard for the company, many of them have long tenure with the company. They fill the pockets of everyone above them so make sure they are taken care of in regards to their benefits even when they can't make enough hours to get them. Pay them what they deserve, the cost of living is only increasing. Include them in these higher-level decisions, hear their voice. These are a few things that would make AWC a great company to work for. 

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to. -Sir Richard Branson 

The pay is good for what it is, the benefits are great and attendance seem lenient compared to other workplaces. Union job is a plus accept no pention. Rail is outdoors at all times and you have to a-custom for the weather. The only downside would be the pay difference between the Shop and Rail of 1$/hr. Rail is more intensive labor and hazardous whereas the shop work is something quite simple and boring. Shop work would seem like a 16-18$/hr job instead of 21$/23$. Management seems ok but you can see the favoritism that you can’t prove. No room to move up aside from a lead position (1-5 spots) as there are a handful of managers ( 7 ) and about 180+ employees. Those spots don’t fill unless one retires/quits. Overall a good job, overtime after 8hrs/day and after 40hrs/week.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck accessory installer 7 salaries reported	$21.36 per hour
Loader 5 salaries reported	$21.17 per hour
Installer 1 salary reported	$16.44 per hour
Warehouse/driver 32 salaries reported	$17.65 per hour
Warehouse worker 1 salary reported	$19.31 per hour

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