Haveman Brothers (Ontario)

[ontoronto]

PART OF THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR

If you're looking for contact information for Haveman Brothers, based out of Ontario, try this website:
http://www.havemanbrothers.com/


BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST:
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Anyone have recent experiences with Haveman, Treeline, or Brinkman? Its getting close to decision time so any relevant perspectives or experiences would be much appreciated.

[Nate]

I've been out of the game in Ontario for a while now, but from my experiences in Ontario it should be Haveman by a comfortable margin.

The only catch, however, is that it's a rather Christian-oriented company. If that would bother you, I'd pick Treeline next, although I'd guess the specific contract you were on between Treeline and Brinkman would be the true determining factor; selecting between companies as an aggregate is difficult.

[ontoronto]

I keep hearing about the Cristian-oriented nature of Haveman. what specifically does this mean? For example; if I work there should I keep my rampant atheist ideologies to myself... that sort of thing.

[Gabe]

edited - this post was grossly inaccurate

[Nate]

I keep hearing about the Cristian-oriented nature of Haveman. what specifically does this mean? For example; if I work there should I keep my rampant atheist ideologies to myself... that sort of thing.

Posted company rules like "No unmarried males and females together in the same tent after 8p.m."

And I'm not kidding.

(Though the camp I was in, these were neither enforced nor adhered to.)

It seems to be a lot of Dutch Reform or something like that, so drinking is okay, but drugs are pretty heavily frowned upon. Instead of 1984 and Dharma Bums floating around camp you'll see the KJB and The Case for Christ. That kind of thing.

Some % going into church on days off etc., quite a few students from bible colleges.

[The Rev]

word around ON last year was that Treeline didn't secure any contracts in 2009. They may be back this year. I don't know. I've never worked for them. I'm just sayin'

Incorrect info ... Thunderhouse was out in 2009, trying to make a comeback in 2010 - They have at least one contract so far - in Hearst (where else??)

Treeline has been going strong in the Englehart area (for TFA) for 10 + years and have had their ups and downs.

Treeline will be planting additional trees in the Timmins and Cochrane area this spring (posted on their website..)
....... Possibly a little out of their element - might not know what their getting into ....

Haveman and Brinkman are both solid companies (ups and downs as well, no doubt)

[Seabass]

word around ON last year was that Treeline didn't secure any contracts in 2009. They may be back this year. I don't know. I've never worked for them. I'm just sayin'

Incorrect info ... Thunderhouse was out in 2009, trying to make a comeback in 2010 - They have at least one contract so far - in Hearst (where else??)

Treeline has been going strong in the Englehart area (for TFA) for 10 + years and have had their ups and downs.

Treeline will be planting additional trees in the Timmins and Cochrane area this spring (posted on their website..)
....... Possibly a little out of their element - might not know what their getting into ....

Haveman and Brinkman are both solid companies (ups and downs as well, no doubt)

Timmins is a rough area to plant. Get used to hearing *tink*tink*tink* all freakin' day. Either that or trudging through swamps. My rookie season was there many years ago...

[The Rev]

they might not be use to the nonprep lowland and mixed wood areas on the Timmins and Cochrane forests.

Not to mention some s-h-i-t access

Treeline might be in for a world-o-hurt .............

[Gabe]

Thanx rev, for the correction. Totally my bad, and no disrespect intended.

[Tupperfan]

Ah...Timmins. *Tink* is truly a sound you hear a lot there!

All I know about Treeline is that they had a pretty good reputation, then there was some kind of changes and many of their experienced planters and management defected out west. My supervisor and another camp's supervisor in Alberta, along with a crewboss or two in AB and MB are Treeline former employees.

I don't want to slander or defame, just what I've heard.

It is indeed Thunderhouse that didn't get any trees last year. I thought they would fold, but I'm not too surprised they got another contract in Hearst (where else indeed).

[Slowsis]

Contact is VERY important in this case. Who would be your supervisor for Brinkman? I worked my first two seasons for Neil out of T-Bay on the Brinkman Ontario unionized show. Its super tight. If that is your option, I would suggest taking it.

[olerthemoler]

so haveman's pretty christian eh? no party? lol. i dont like the no opposite sex in tent rule.. -_- ill get lonely at night i want a tent buddy

[East]

Posted company rules like "No unmarried males and females together in the same tent after 8p.m."

seriously . . . the fact that this is a rule makes the management pretty questionable in my opinion

[E.E]

amazing... I can't believe that's legal.

[theBushman]

The nature of short term employment.
I'm sure that it gets dressed up as making for a positive work environment for the group as a whole. Keeping the drama down and so on.
'If you dont like it, perhaps you wouldn't fit the dynamic' would be the response I'm sure.

[Scooter]

Technically speaking, a planting camp is defined as being part of the workplace.

Workers receive benefits from this. For example, if you fall and break your leg in camp after supper, you are covered by Workers' Compensation, because you're considered to be on the job site.

However, the trade-off is that you have to accept some restrictions. I suspect that a company would have a pretty good defense by suggesting that they don't allow sex between workers in the workplace, if someone were to try to complain to the labour board.

However, having said that, I think that policy is foolish. Sharing a tent allows workers to capitalize on body heat, keeping them physically and emotionally healthier. It also allows employees to share costs, which ultimately should be in the best interests of the company, because the employees will be able to retain more take-home pay at the end of the summer, and thus might be more likely to return in future seasons.

In fact, I think the company should also encourage planters to shower together, to conserve water.

[jdtesluk]

They can define it as a workplace all they want, but if you are not being paid for your time, there are restrictions on what a company can do to control your behaviour. In this case, given the basis of the policy in a Christian-themed corporate environment, I don't think the company would have the chance of an ice-cube surviving hell's fire of winning a court case related to this issue. The Canada Human Rights Act would simply blow their christian-conservative house of cards off the table. If they were to fire a planter for violating this policy and end up in court, you can guarantee they would leave the whole religion thing at the door, and make some hocus argument about the policy being related to worker safety, because they KNOW they would lose the moment their religious idealism entered the conversation.

They should stick to what they are legally entitled to do: provide employment and plant trees, and avoid trying to impose their own set of religious morals upon others. Company policies like this belong in the past, like 2000 years, didn't even have a place at any point this century or the last. Leave the proselytizing and bible thumping to the folks that keep knocking on my door at 10 in the morning to push some crappy comic book on me.

[Tnalp]

Sharing body heat!! Good one! Like in the Gulags were those things were "normal". Ha Ha.

[olerthemoler]

I'm trying to decide which company to treeplant with. Haveman brothers, Outland or Thunderhouse? They're all Ontario companies(well except Outland works in Manitoba too) Any comments/suggestions? Thanks!

[The Rev]

Of those 3 - Definitely - Haveman

You will be well trained, treated fairly and paid decently

[olerthemoler]

what about the age range and male to female ratio at the Haveman camp? so if it's christian no weed/alcohol right? i dont mind that as im not a heavy drinker but it'd be fun to be allowed to have a buddy with you in your tent. is that allowed?
but if it's christian does that mean there's no party at all? I like dancing and music so I dont want a boring atmosphere either. a good balance would be good if you know what I mean.

[olerthemoler]

Im 22 so I'm hoping to choose a company with people around my age range so I dont feel awkward

thanks again!

[olerthemoler]

woops just realized there are posts above i havent read yet. lol still getting used to how this forum thread works

thanks guys for your input

[East]

so haveman's pretty christian eh? no party? lol. i dont like the no opposite sex in tent rule.. -_- ill get lonely at night i want a tent buddy

No opposite sex that's too bad.. Gay orgies are a go tho?

[philnyedaplanterguy]

Hey bit of an old thread but I spent my third season with these guys this past year and thought I'd share my experience if anyone is interested.

Don't be concerned about the whole christian oriented thing. One of the camps has a ton of people from redeemer (a christian university), but unless you get hired through redeemer or know any of these guys you'll probably get put in one of the other 2 camps, which are just like any other Ontario camp in terms of party life. The Christian camp has a really dedicated core group of vets which is pretty good for an Ontario company considering most places are just rookie mills. There was less hard drugs from what I've seen at HRI but unless youre into meth its not really a big deal.

There's definitely potential for some good earnings. Price is usually between 9.5 - 10 C, and the land is usually pretty decent. Almost all road access so never really had to wait for trees. Biggest bummer I found was just in the fact we were working the whole summer out in the Longlac-Geraldton area, which is just a really bum ass place to be. Another annoying thing is that they work 5 days on, 2 days off. I believe this just stems from the owner wanting planters to always have Sundays off if they happen to want to go to church (which never really happened). Some people liked it but personally I felt like it was just a big waste of production time. The towns were also pretty much shut down on the weekends so we had to get all our booze through the camp manager. I heard they have a contract in the Sioux area this year, maybe this is a more interesting area, probs not though.

Food was decent, the cook was a rookie but she killed it considering it was her first time as a camp cook. Don't know if shell be coming back though.

Def try and get into Scotties camp, he's an absolute beauty. Most of the planters this past year were pretty young rookies but we formed a really awesome group. Bunch of us drove out to thunder bay just for the tree checkers wedding recently and theres talk of us going to cuba just for a spring break trip! So no doubt a good community of planters.

Overall a really good comapny to work for if you're sticking around in Ontario. Super torn right now cause I have such good friends there and dont wanna ditch them, but I also got a friend offering me a job for blue collar in BC and I really wanna get out of Ontario.

[Haveman]

There's definitely potential for some good earnings. Price is usually between 9.5 - 10 C, and the land is usually pretty decent. Almost all road access so never really had to wait for trees.

This year the minimum price has been bumped to 11 cents per tree. This is company wide. As a company we got to the point of saying "Planters need a raise. We don't care if we don't get any trees this year we're putting in prices to give the planters a raise".

Prices are now:
Kenogami (contract reference in the post) - 11 SIP, 12 Direct.
TBay contract - 12 SIP, 13 Direct
Atikokan contract - 12 SIP, 13 Direct, 18 Fill

[pitters]

This year the minimum price has been bumped to 11 cents per tree. This is company wide. As a company we got to the point of saying "Planters need a raise. We don't care if we don't get any trees this year we're putting in prices to give the planters a raise".

Prices are now:
Kenogami (contract reference in the post) - 11 SIP, 12 Direct.
TBay contract - 12 SIP, 13 Direct
Atikokan contract - 12 SIP, 13 Direct, 18 Fill

Great to see significant improvements across Ontario! 12 cent site prep sounds awesome!

[Steorra]

This year the minimum price has been bumped to 11 cents per tree. This is company wide. As a company we got to the point of saying "Planters need a raise. We don't care if we don't get any trees this year we're putting in prices to give the planters a raise".

Prices are now:
Kenogami (contract reference in the post) - 11 SIP, 12 Direct.
TBay contract - 12 SIP, 13 Direct
Atikokan contract - 12 SIP, 13 Direct, 18 Fill

Great to see significant improvements across Ontario! 12 cent site prep sounds awesome!

I'm not overly in the loop and posters name is "haveman" but I havn't heard anything about 18 cent fill I think that might be a typo best bet is 14. Also last I heard only tbay contract had 12 SIP which at its specs is fair, though if Atikokan is also 12 has been a lucrative contract in past and has alot of money to be made for Ontario at that price.