Daewoo

This is, and isn't a total load of bollocks...

Most FIFO workers only do it for a few years, to build a solid bank balance, and get themselves set up 'back home'...  back home for 1/2 of Australia is Sydney and Melbourne...

I know young guys, willing and wanting to get into a job in 'The Mines', but they have no skills, and no knowledge of what they want to do...  the days of filling in a form and the company finding a job for you are gone...  The company doesn't employ people, a contracting company does...  the contracting company employs you on a contract, so they don't supply training, because every 6 months you gt to decide whether to stay or go to the company next door...  there isn't a labour shortage in Australia, there is a skills shortage...  your average 'dole bludger; doesn't have the skills required by the mines...  sure they have some token unskilled jobs for females, driving trucks etc etc...  but a bloke with no experience has no shot...

I know older guys, who have done their 3 years FIFO, all are qualified tradesmen, away from their family for 6 months of the year...  who are now looking to get back home, but can't afford it, because the cost of living in Sydney, doesn't equate to the pay of a blue collar worker...

Remember, it isn't the 6 weeks (more normal FIFO contract) of 12 hour days that is the killer, it is the 6 weeks full time living on a mine site, away from your family that is the killer...  home for 6 weeks, but the kids are at school most of the day, you get to spend 6 weekends with them, but then they don't want to dump their friends and social life just because dad wants to 'catch up' on what he has missed...  then you are back on a plane...

Of Gina's 1700 jobs, how many will go to Thai's???  I would hazard a guess it will be exactly NONE...  The jobs will be placed through the contractor...  the contractor will be a Chinese company, given the contract to appease the end customer, the Chinese Government...  they will bring in Chinese labour, use Chinese equipment, ship the products to port in Chinese rail wagons (with maybe a US built locomotive)...

Gina gets rich, Australia gets screwed...

I haven't been a Union Member for 15 years, but the decline in work standards for the average Aussie, since power moved entirely to The Government and Corporations is astounding...

I'll pay $80,000 in tax this year...  if I loose my job, I am eligible for $650/fortnight payments (married with 3 young kids)....  our mortgage is $2400/month, in a smallish house in a cheap suburb...  maybe out in 'the country' families are living high on the hog on welfare payments, but not in Sydney...  maybe they get by, but it isn't a life...

In Australia there is a massive need for construction workers in the arid/hot/inhospitable north of the country (Northern Territory, WA, Qld), because all the skilled workers have headed off to the mines…  lots of Aussies do a few year stint, flying in fly out, at great expense to the companies until the lifestyle becomes unbearable…  basically they earn a very good wage for working ½ a year total…  

This has left massive holes in the construction industry, because all the workers are in the mines where they earn double or triple the money on a FIFO contract, Sydney and Melbourne are suffering, but nowhere near as badly as Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin where double or triple the money is only a couple of hours away…

These companies want reliable labour who will work 6 days a week, 48 weeks/year, for a decent pay and conditions…  The companies will train them on site in local practices and expectations…

At the moment, the big problem is the Chinese workers on construction sites…  lots of Chinese companies undercutting local prices to win contracts, 100% Chinese staff on dodgy visas, dodgy qualifications, dodgy pay…  no English skills at all, not necessary because the entire crew is Chinese…  but unable to work with other trades/contractors because they can’t communicate…  there is such low Unionism in Australia, that they are virtually powerless now, and it will only get worse because no one new will join a union, because they are powerless…

Of course, all of this is driven by ripping up Australia, and shipping it to China as cheaply and quickly as we can, so that we can sell as much as we can before the China bubble bursts, at which time, Australia is f^cked…  All the ‘cashed up bogans’ will go back to earning a realistic wage for their skills, the property market with implode, and there will be lots of immigrants with Permanent Residency and no jobs…

The true meaning of “The Lucky Country” from Donald Horne’s poem, which most Australian’s use a positive, will come home to roost…  “Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck.”

Better the Thai’s than more Chinese IMHO…

Sorry, didn't realise that other farrang were stupid enough to ride in Thai heat...

I rented a couple of heavy, steel framed, Chinese mountain bikes from Probike http://www.probike.co.th/ ...  not sure if they rent higher spec bikes, but you could ask...

Rode the bikes from BKK to Surat...  Thailand is perfect for cycle touring...  but then I started riding motorbikes because I am old and lazy???

Cheers,
Darryl

I can't believe all the sanctimonious losers who get on here and would throw him under a bus for buying some weed...  'because it is illegal'...  so is recording a TV show to watch later, quick, send around the BiB....

I haven't had a puff since I was 14, a good few decades ago...  I don't like pot, I've seen lots of guys ruin their lives over it by becoming barely functioning idiots...  living in filthy share houses, eating badly, having a hard time holding down a job, and just being 'wasters'...  I don't buy into the 'legalise it' argument because of those things, but suggesting someone should face prison time or massive fines for pot use is ridiculous...

Fools here suggesting he faces 10 years for a joint, in a country where undoubtedly most of the same guys are buying sex from economic slaves, drinking and driving, living here when not entitled to by manipulating the Visa system, disrespecting everyone they meet...

In a country where murder goes unpunished and often rewarded, you let the 'lawmakers' and police tell you what is right and wrong???  Use your own brain for once!!!

Hope the subject of the OP got out of it OK...  $600 is a fair amount to pay for a bit of a smoke...

To the rest of the hang em high brigade, "let he who is without sin..."

/rant
Daewoo

don't waste a two week vacation just to find a wife...  they have girls at the airport collecting trolleys, working in Burger King, cleaning toilets...  no Thai girls have any self respect, or mind of their own...  it is just like buying a new shirt at WalMart...  choose the one that is on sale and fits less badly than the others...  you should be sorted in a few minutes and on your way home...

Buy the ring in the US before you leave, as there are lots of dodgy jewel sellers in Thailand...

Daewoo