Labor Ready

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Labor Ready, Inc.

Type	public (NYSE: TBI)
Founded	Kent, Washington 1989
Headquarters	Tacoma, Washington Labor Ready operates about 800 dispatch offices throughout North America and in the UK.
Key people	Robert J. (Bob) Sullivan, Chairman Steve Cooper, CEO and Director
Industry	Employment Services
Products	Temporary workers for manual day labor.
Employees	2,900 (2004) 600,000 temporary employees to jobs in construction, manufacturing, hospitality services, landscaping, warehousing, retail and more.
Website	http://www.trueblueinc.com

Labor Ready, Inc., based in Tacoma, Washington, is the United States' largest provider of temporary manual labor to the construction industry, other light industry, and small businesses. Its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TBI.

Founded in 1989 in Kent, Washington by Glenn Welstad and two partners, Labor Ready now has over 800 offices in every state, Puerto Rico, Canada, and the U.K. In recent years it has also grown through the acquisition of two companies, CLP Resources and Spartan Staffing.

Workers are paid daily by check. A fee of up to $1.99 is charged if a worker elects to be paid in cash. The fee is actually for $1.00, but since the cash is dispersed from a machine the excess change is part of the fee, so one can pay anywhere from $1.00 to $1.99 depending on deductions and pay rate. The cash option is available in all states except New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Texas, Arizona. Workers have access to safety equipment but are charged a fee if they are not returned. A worker can supply his or her own safety equipment. Workers who do not have transportation to jobs are also provided transportation at a fee not to exceed $2.50 each way. This amount is different from branch to branch. Workers are encouraged to watch a safety video while they wait for work.

Workers often line up outside of a branch before it opens, which is typically at 5:30 AM. Depending on the location of the office and the day of the week, anywhere from zero to roughly one hundred workers can be dispatched daily.

Labor Ready argues that it benefits society by providing work to individuals who otherwise may not have been able to get a job. The company also claims that most of the jobs performed by its workers are temporary positions and that no opportunities for full time employees are lost. Labor Ready uses only legal residents of the countries in which their branches are based. Trade unions have accused Labor Ready of mistreatment and deceptive practices.^[1]

[edit] Name change

As of December 18, 2007, Labor Ready, Inc will be considered a brand under the name True Blue.It changed its web address to http://www.trueblueinc.com, and its stock ticker to TBI.

Other brands under True Blue include CLP,Spartan Staffing, Plane Techs and Transportation Logistics Company .

Spartan Staffing is one of the largest specialized providers of light industrial temporary workers in the southeastern and southern United States. Spartan can provide temporary employees for short or longer term assignments to meet critical client requirements on a timely basis.

CLP connects skilled tradespeople with construction and facilities clients to create the very best of teams: highly trained and specialized trades professionals, working together with top construction and facilities clients from across the country.