1-11-10

The company I work for… pays less than their competition, doesn’t provide housing for us (they rely on the military to do that, when other contractors who pay more provide trailers to live in) and also they don’t buy the parts that we will obviously need ahead of time. The speculation is that they will be losing the contract so they are trying to squeeze every last penny. I mean they refused to give the Indians there annual three percent pay increase. This was the final straw for the two really good Indian mechanics in our shop at night. They wanted me to come with them literal a quarter mile down the road and apply. I didn’t do it because if I am going to jump of this contract, I want to get the hell out of Afghanistan. But the other company is offering a little over 2700 a month to TCN’s (better than double what they make here).

Well the down side to the company not buying parts is that you can have a truck that only needs a bolt but can’t “sell” it. And management doesn’t care that it’s their fault there’s not enough parts here, the only thing they care about is us getting our 21 trucks per week sold. So the other night our boss (Red) told me and Georgia we could go out and procure parts from holding yard in South Park. He said if we were going to do it make sure we don’t take them off a truck that has already been inspected and passed, get them off a truck that’s waiting to go in the shop. Joe heard us talking and said “Make sure you don’t get caught!” and Red said “you don’t have to go, it’s up to you” but really being bored at the shop or going on a mission. We chose the mission. I drove because Georgia has such a poor since of direction. I took us to the rows of blown up or rolled over MWRAP’s and we got the parts we needed and came back. Later on Joe told me it’s a felony to take parts off of one truck and put on another. He said you can do it but you need paperwork from the DOD for a controlled substitution. I asked why he didn’t tell me before I went out there; he said he tried to warn me. He said if anybody tells you to go get a part make sure other people hear it. So that you can tell anyone who asks you were told by your boss to do it.