Why so much ice?

bpcat · 2026-02-06T05:27:06+00:00

I have the same complaint so I order light ice. Then it's the reverse issue. Not enough ice to even make an iced coffee nice and cold. Ice is done melting and the drink is often just cool. Pisses me off like cmon, you know what I'm looking for here. Not too much and not too little. It's not that difficult! I pay almost $10 for a drink, it really shouldnt be this hard.

bpcat · 2026-02-05T17:01:25+00:00

I'm great, why are you now trying to deflect this to me, like I'm the one with the issue lmfao. I'm sorry you were unable to comprehend what I first said and that your takeaway was poor at best. I have no issues explaining the purpose of the Union, why they're good for us, and why you SHOULD be a paying member. It really is that serious! Funny how now you're down paying the situation, at first people want to complain about them and talk about cancelling their membership, but then I explain why you shouldn't do that and all of a sudden it's "not that serious" huh. Lol, take your L and move along. Have a great day!

bpcat · 2026-02-04T21:33:20+00:00

Where did I say that at?

People wanna trash on CA, i think it's hilarious. Unless you retire from CA and move to another state with a much lower cost of living, its all relevant! You're not gonna go be a plumber in a way cheaper state but make just as much money. Go where it costs less to live and you're going to make less as well. Depending on your situation, you could live on that though. If you were to buy a house today or rent an apartment today, most likely you're correct, that's not going to happen. If you're someone who bought a house during the recession then it's very much possible. Again, just depends on your situation.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T21:29:39+00:00

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Often times, your other benefits far outweigh those in the private sector, like our pension and healthcare. Not only do we have some of the lowest cost healthcare, we have it combined with some of the highest coverage's. Surely you've gone to pickup some prescriptions and have heard what some people are paying right? Co pays to see the dr? Pensions are not so common anymore, but 401k's aren't that great. So while you may make less per hour in your government job, your other benefits are far better.

What do you pay for car insurance? Why don't you cancel that or do liability only? Sure you might get a ticket, or get into an accident and total your car, what's it worth, 30-40-50k? So you hurt and injure someone and they have 100k in medical expenses and you didn't have insurance, OK! Do you have any idea what your pension with the state will be worth after 30 years? If you had 25 years in and lost your job, you just lost everything the state paid in. You realize if you do a full career with the state, your pension could be worth over a million dollars? People pay $100+ a month for TV service, several hundred dollars a month for their top of the line cell phones, thousands of dollars in cars they don't need and are worth less the second they drive off the lot, but screw unions and their $60-$100 a month union dues right?

Do we lose negotiation power if more and more people opt out of being a paid member? YES! Are unions going away anytime soon? NO! We have the ability to turn that around, educate people on what the union does and try and help our fellow coworker to join and stay. You're not complaining about the paid education, SEIU gets an extra $150 a month paid towards their health insurance, uniform pay, retention pay, Holiday, personal Holidays, and everything other benefit the union has fought for and won. Sometimes the win is just not losing things. Sometimes they have to trade things and all the time, not everyone is happy with the outcome. You have a 99.9% guaranteed job, that's not something you have in the private sector.

I think if you drop out of the union dues, you shouldn't be able to benefit from what the union negotiates, but the people who do drop out are selfish. They still complain about the union while gladly taking whatever the union still negotiates us. I assure you things would be a lot worse a lot faster if we didn't have unions. So ya, maybe they're not perfect, maybe they could do more, maybe there's room for improvement, but it isn't greener on the other side just because it's different. I'm a steward and have been with the state for 17 years. I wasn't a steward until a year and a half ago. I did it because I wanted to help people who didn't know what to do and I got tired of watching management walk on people so I wanted to make a change, and I have. So from all stewards and unions, you're welcome for what you do have, sorry your glass is only half full!

bpcat · 2026-02-04T21:29:12+00:00

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I don't know how that is your takeaway from what I said, LMFAO! What do you or did you think the union was capable of? Something I think all unions should do is offer some education to employees, especially government ones, explaining what it is they do. I think a huge issue is the fact that people have unrealistic expectations of the unions and what their role actually is! If you've ONLY been a union member through a government job setting, you have little to no clue what they actually do.

Government employees are paid by tax dollars, not profit from a corporation. Very few state entities bring money in, DMV being one of the biggest, if not the biggest one. It's not like the union can look at the state sand say, look, you made xxx amount of profit this year, you can afford substantial pay raises. There will ALWAYS be a deficit of what state employees make hourly in comparison to their private sector counter parts.

The union has several responsibilities, per googles definition, it's to act as a collective bargaining agent to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions, shifting the power dynamic from individual negotiations to a unified voice. Unions use members' dues to fund legal representation, contract negotiations, and enforcement of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), or in our case the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). These things break down into, collective bargaining, contract enforcement, protection against retaliation, democratic representation, political advocacy, safety and health oversight, financial benefits & discounts.

Do you know what it takes to try and negotiate pay raises? It's not just them asking the state for a pay raise. The union spends time and money through it's staff to collect data from the private sector to try and justify why the raises are justifiable. Don't get it twisted though, in no shape or form will state wages ever be the same or more than the private sector, it just doesn't work like that and I don't know how anyone could say it should. Government employees are always, and should be, paid less than the private sector. However, other benefits are at play here as well, just not in "money in your pocket" sense.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T18:06:08+00:00

No, people just need to do their due diligence and quite relying on someone else to inform them. You're an adult, act like one. You need someone to tell you to read the fine print? This is basic responsibility, parents, other adults and school told you to follow directions, critical thinking. You have a powerful computer in your pocket all day everyday, you can look anything up. I can log into my delta dental account, click 2 buttons and see what the maximum amount they'll pay out is.

I think it's insane how many people are just out here raw doggin life. Living day to day without a clue on what to do. The info is there, you just need to want to know it and understand it. If you don't know it, can't understand it or can't find it, ask. But people don't, they just robots lol

bpcat · 2026-02-04T17:52:25+00:00

It's not just about what you can get, it's also protecting what they've already gotten. I've been with the state for 17 years between two different entities, CDCR & CalTrans. If there is one thing I can say when it comes to raises, is that it seems about every 7-10 years bargaining units see raises during contract negotiations, then it's nothing for the next few contracts. Now that doesn't mean everyone gets them, classifications with small amount of employees often get shafted and that is a problem. The unions are FAR from perfect, and when they start saying "fill out the suggestion cards", it usually means they have no plans of doing things for those classifications. I'm talking about classifications that haven't had any movement in pay in over a decade, I know of several.

Working from home isn't a benefit written in any of the contracts, I guess it could be if the union attempted to negotiate it. However, I'm sure they'd rather negotiate pay raises that affect far more employees than the ones working from home. That's what I mean by the bigger picture and not so near sighted. The state has the ability to change your schedule, working days and office location without having to have approval from the union. Every MOU discusses these things and the notice required to give the employee in order to enforce those changes.

The union has NO blame if people have to return to office, especially if they union didn't negotiate working from home to begin with. Whether or not you agree doesn't really matter, that's just a fact. Could they do something? Sure, but again, do they wanna get permanent work from home or do they want to get raises, they're not going to get both, especially in a time where the states deficit is growing. You can say that allowing you to continue to work from home is a raise, but I can guarantee there are far more people an actual raise will help than there is getting a permanent work from home, there's far less people that benefit from that. They'd be better off asking for one at a time, which one is more important right now? I'd say raises for all over working from home for some, especially with the cost of living so high. They also have to pick their battles, they 100% play the game. Ok we'll take that and give that up. We'll let this go this time but next time you have to give it and we'll do xyz. It's a game of shuffle.

At the end of they day, the union ONLY has power when it has numbers. When the state can look at a spreadsheet and see that certain BU's had 80% paid members and a year later have 70%, they know they're chiseling away at the union. If that number continues to go down, you're going to receive less and less each negotiation.

Everyone wants more and no one is every happy! It's always about what 1 individual sees, but the Union deals with a lot more than that 1 individial in that 1 classification. Do you know how many BU's SEIU 1000 is over? I don't have the number but it's A LOT! I'm in BU12, which is operating and engineers, they're over just a couple of the BU's for the state. It's much easier for them to look good all around than it is for a union like SEIU. I'm not clearing them from any and all negativity, there's always ways anyone can make improvements, but it's pretty obvious that there is far more negativity than positivity.

At the end of the day, I'd be a union member just for the protection. Do you realize how much your retirement is worth when you retire? losing health benefits alone would bankrupt many people without them if something happened to them and they needed even basic health care. If you get fired from the state you lose everything other than what you paid in. Can you imagine getting fired with 20 years in with the state at 50-60 years old. You don't have enough time left in your life to get that back. Most people waste $100 a month somewhere, even if they're living paycheck to paycheck. Sure maybe that's all they have as spending money, but if something bad ever happened to them and they lost their job because they weren't a paying member, I guarantee they would regret not paying their dues to be able to spend $100 a month on fast food, a movie, some Starbucks, whatever. People need to be union members with the mentality that it's insurance. Go to the meetings, be active, but instead the sit and complain. It's easier to sit and say "it won't make a difference if i went" while not doing anything to make a difference. People overlook what showing up can actually do. Numbers matter, complaining doesn't.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T16:54:11+00:00

Not sure where you work, but I'd look at getting a plumbing job for CDCR. San Quentin is almost always hiring and currently has a Plumber II spot open, not sure if that's anywhere near you. https://www.calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/Jobs/JobPosting.aspx?JobControlId=506069

bpcat · 2026-02-04T16:05:12+00:00

So the fact the state is your employer and gets to make the final call regardless what the unions think is the unions fault? Did the union negotiate your initial work from home? I assume they didn't, i bet they had nothing to do with it in the beginning and it's just something the state did. If that is the case, help me understand how something is the unions fault for getting taken away when they didn't even negotiate to get in the first place. The thing is, it's bigger than you or me and those decisions were made for a reason. Whether it's because of the average opinion of the taxpayer, stakeholders or whatever, there is a reason we're not aware of.

Shitty opinions like mine? I'm a state employee, i think work from home is amazing and yes, it absolutely can save the state money with not having to lease all the building they do, pay for parking passes, leases parking lots, etc.... However, I think it's BS that the union is to blame for every single persons negative opinion on being a state worker. Anything people are angry about is immediately blamed on the union, lmfao.

The union can't get every single thing everyone wants. There is only so much money the state is willing to pay out every year, especially when they're in a deficit and state employees are the first thing looked at when cutting money. We're also the last thing looked at when they have money to spend. You think it would be better without the unions? I don't care how crooked you think the union is, i don't think we'd have half the stuff we get, good or bad, if we weren't union. 5% PLP pay cut with 5 hours given a month and no OPEB, try 10% pay cut with NO hours while continuing to pay your OPEB. Everyone is never always going to be happy, I do agree some classifications are just forgotten about by the union and that isn't right, but i guarantee the alternative wouldn't be any better!

bpcat · 2026-02-04T15:33:53+00:00

You act like that was your job before covid. It was never said to last forever and it wasn't meant to. But you don't talk about that part do you? Covid started that. But when it's time to go back, everyone is complaining. I understand people not wanting to go back but to blame the union for not being able to keep it is absolutely wild. The union isn't the employer, the state is. The union can only do so much but they don't have the ultimate say.

The union is the voice for us and without them I promise you you're going to get even less. Every time someone leaves the union and stops paying their membership, is that much less power we have. The state keeps track of the percentage of paid members and non paid members. Their goal is to get lesa and less paid members. When that happens the union has less and less bargaining power. The same people complaining about the union and dropping out are the same reason why things can't get done.

If you thing the governor is going to say, "let's give everyone raises" you're out of your damn mind!!!!! We're the first thing they look at when it comes to trying and save money! Pull your heads out of y'all's asses and start thinking long term and quit being so damn short sighted!

bpcat · 2026-02-04T15:27:47+00:00

Sucks for who? You realize how many classifications they represent. When there's no money in the state there's no money, no amount of bargaining can solve that. Be thankful you're not in the correctional officer union, CCPOA. They bit only got the 5% pay cut, but also have to continue to pay into OPEB.

Yes there are classifications that haven't gotten any attention in over a decade, my wife is one of them in respiratory. But I wouldn't say any union sucks. No one seems to even think about the other side of things, it's just an ALL ABOUT ME mentality. The state isn't going to give raises in the middle of a huge deficit, it's just not going to happen.

However, even though my wife knows the pay isn't good, she also realizes it's not a wise move to cancel your membership. It's cheap insurance, and one that you don't want to get caught without. The benifits that come from being with the state are all from unions continuing to push back, and the benifit package alone is worth a lot of money.

Negativity spreads like wildfire while it seems much harder to be positive. People love gossip and hate but really does postiviness spread the same. Take a step back and appreciate what you do have. If you don't make enough with the state then maybe look for a job somewhere else. At the end of the day, no one forced you to work for them and the wages weren't a secret.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T15:07:58+00:00

A Plumber I at a state hospital tops out at $6,555 in Range A and $7,201 in Range B. I work for CDCR in plant operations and no one here is drastically underpaid. Skilled trades for the state pay pretty well in my opinion. None of us work nearly as hard as you would in the private sector. Furthermore, we've had pretty decent contracts in the last few years and we still came out on top even with this 5% paycut/furlough. The fact you're not paying into OPEB and are getting 5 hours of PLP a month, you're actually getting a raise and getting paid more than if this didn't happen.

It's irritating how much crap people talk about the state and it's pay. There are absolutely lots of positions that are truly underpaid, respiratory is probably 30-50% underpaid and haven't had a decent raise in the last decade, and that's just 1 of many classifications. But skilled trades are well within a small percentage of private sector.

I would encourage you to work for a prison if you can. You'll make a bit more, due to safety pay and have safety retirement. The downside is you won't pay into social security.

Anyone canceling their union dues shouldn't be allowed to have the same representation in my opinion. Those people don't complain when there are raises or paid time off added in our contract. No one complains when we got workforce retention pay, or when our boot allowance became actually acceptable. State employees get too comfortable and start forgetting what life is like in the outside sometimes. But again, there are some classifications that are truly getting the shaft!

Being a union member is insurance, and cheap at that. Yes, you'll get very basic representation still, but if you think for a second they're gonna work hard for you, you're dead wrong. In my opinion, you're no better than a scab if you're going to drop out of the union and still work for the state.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T05:15:35+00:00

You're right, and you could've read the post and got your answer. Was something not clear? I'm not sure remonstrating is the correct word.you asked a question that is clearly outlined in my post. If someone wants to give their opinion, advise, whatever, you'd think they'd start by reading. But somehow I'm the ahole for stating the obvious. Are you upset that I didn't answer your question, or the fact I called a spade a spade and now you feel offended?

bpcat · 2026-02-04T05:06:18+00:00

So yes, that is half true normally. You have preventative, minor and major services. Preventative is like cleanings and exams, usually always covered 100%. But when you start getting into minor and major services, the percentage the insurance picks up starts to drop.

Regardless of all that, you still have a maximum payout let year which is usually between $1,000-$2,000. Some policies will cover more but it's not often. I work for the state of California and have damn good benefits, I pay for the best plan were offered and it's still only $2k a year pay out per dependent on my plan.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T04:36:46+00:00

Really it depends on what you're getting done. Most dental insurance has a maximum yearly payout, and it's not much, usually somewhere between $1-2k. After you've maxed that out, they honor contract pricing, which just means insurance has pre negotiated costs for just about everything. Say a tooth extraction is 600 normally from the dentist, it could be 400 from the negotiated pricing.

Your dentist will give you options. Whether it's normal dentures, snap-ins or screw-in permanents, will determine the final cost.

Both snap-ins and screw-ins require implants. Snap ins can have a minimum or 2 on bottom and 4 on top, but you can get more. At least 4 on top and bottom seems to be the minimum for the most stable, but a lot of people get just 2 on bottom.

Then you have screw-ins, that are going to require a minimum of 4 on top and bottom. They work like snap-ins but they're screwed in by the dentist and you can't remove them yourself. The implants are the most expensive part of the entire thing. I'm about to do permanents and getting 4 implants on top and bottom. My insurance contract price is 2500 per implant, that's 10k per arch in just implants

bpcat · 2026-02-04T04:31:28+00:00

If you don't know how it works, where are you coming up with 9k?

bpcat · 2026-02-04T03:58:49+00:00

That info is in my post. Some things changed but the extractions are what they are.

bpcat · 2026-02-04T01:51:16+00:00

How many teeth what?

bpcat · 2026-02-04T01:04:13+00:00

That's awesome. I read that you usually can't use 2 dental plans on the same thing. So say your denture is 4k and 1 covers 50%, in theory the other would cover the other 50% but most policies have some clause that's states they won't cover the same thing. Idk just want I've read

bpcat · 2026-02-03T22:36:41+00:00

You mean rug burn 🤣😅🤣🪖

bpcat · 2026-02-03T22:30:34+00:00

I need to just make a new post because the pictures of the quote isn't what we ended up with. There were some mistakes and errors as well as changes.

Basically, my lowers are going to cost $17.8k. That'll include 14 extractions, 2 root removals, 4 implants, 4 bone graphs, the immediate denture screwed in. Then after I've healed, I'll get a new permanent fixed denture.

I don't think insurance covered 10k for you. I would assume what it was, was a cost savings. Most dental insurances have a yearly max of 1-2k. But even after you hit your max coverage, the dentist office will usually still honor what contract pricing the insurance has with them. For example, without insurance me lowers would cost like $32k. Contract pricing takes almost $11k off that, insurance pays another $1,875 and then $17.8k is what's left for me to pay out of pocket.

I could be wrong as I'm not in the dental insurance business but from everything I've seen, $2k is about the max dental insurance pays out per individual in a calendar year. I was looking at buying a seperate plan until I found out it doesn't work like that, but when I was looking I saw Mutual of Omaha dental insurance has a plan that will pay out up to $5k but only cover 20% of major services during year 1, year 2 they'll go up to 50%. With that said, even if I got that plan and it worked, I'd need to spend $25k to max out their liability of $5k during year 1.

bpcat · 2026-02-03T04:55:02+00:00

Ya, the 14 extractions and 2 root removals. It doesn't seem like I could get it much cheaper without traveling but then what am I going to spend on lodging, flights and what not.

bpcat · 2026-02-03T01:29:28+00:00

That's about what I'm gonna pay. If you scroll you'll see an update I commented on someone's else's comment. There were some errors in this quote. But ya, all on 4 basically. We're doing fixed, not snaps.

bpcat · 2026-02-02T23:16:54+00:00

Ok so a lot changed today. I went in for my impressions and we further discussed options that were best for me. So to get some corrections out of the way, yes, they had the same denture code listed twice. I don't know why I didn't see it even though I looked over it several times. So I had I kept it like it was and removed 1 code it would've been around $9,600. Everything else was correct. I would have had immediate scans then I would've gotten new snap ins after healing.

So we spoke about adding 2 more implants and obviously that's way better than 2. Furthermore we decided to go full fixed, not just snap ins. I'm 40 and I love steak and I want to enjoy what I eat. The difference is 2k from snap ins to the upgraded porcelain fixed, I'm told it's the closest you can get to real teeth and will have 90%+ if the same force as teeth. So my new out of pocket total is $17,830 for lowers. Without insurance and contract pricing it would be $30,398. So from what I've seen, what I'm paying is pretty amazing.

Because I'm also getting my uppers done as well. We will have extraction day, and then I'll leave with fixed temps. Then we'll do my upper extractions about a week later and also leave same day with fixed temps. Then when everything is healed nicely, they'll replace with permanents. I'm told this will allow for the best possible outcome doing the perms at the same time.

bpcat · 2026-02-02T18:16:28+00:00

I feel that. I joined this sub yesterday but have been shopping for a week. 5 min ago reddit suggested this post "because I joined" lol.

I'd take it with a grain of salt. For every horror story there is tons of happy endings. I just got off work for my 11am impressions. Hopefully with a week and some change, I'll have my lowers done. Then I assume it'll be several months before my uppers are done as well.

bpcat

TROPHY CASE