I retired from a job at a phosphate mine in Florida in 2005. Within a few days after I retired, the superintendent and the supervisor came to my house and asked if I would consider returning to work. They came back back 2 more times in the following weeks. They were getting tech school graduates that had a class A CDL and couldn't drive the trucks. They had people hiring on that claimed to be heavy equipment operators, but they could not even start the machines. The mine was governed by both OSHA and MHSA, and had mines safety training requirements lasting more than a week before the new hires were allowed on company property. There was also serious random drug testing. They were going through months trying to find an employee that could actually perform the required jobs and wasn't just clean for the pre-hire drug test.They finally hired a former employee of another mine that had just moved into the area. Most of the younger employees they tried could not get to work on time (or at all) for a week straight. It was around the clock shift work, and if the relief employee did not show up, or was late, the employee that had just completed his shift could not go home. The lateness and the missed days was costing huge over time. Most of the new hires never made it past the 90 day probationary period.
