>>20110790Those mining conveyor belt maintenance companies like non-compete agreements as a condition of employment because they are desperate for guys, to the point where they've tried to poach them from one another in the past. The desperation for guys is due to guys doing those 20 hour shifts or 90 hour weeks and then quitting, thinking that if they go to another belt company they might be able to keep using the same skillset while having a better work/life balance, which is generally a wrong assumption.
Belt work just doesn't accommodate work/life balance, anymore than being a train conductor or locomotive engineer does. Some jobs, by the nature of the job, have to be pretty much your whole life, and these are necessary jobs that keep society functioning.
If you can't have work/life balance or family time, then, you should be paid extremely well and have excellent benefits, but unfortunately, many belt companies pay less than the regular coal or other types of mining companies and don't offer the same level of benefits. That kind of sucks and should be rectified, or at least I think so.
