When I lived in California my neighbor was relentless in trying to get me to join Amway....i finally told him enough
Pretty much. Their jobs obviously weren't very essential or difficult if other workers could pick up the slack. There's not much job security when your work requires little training or specialization. When times are good, businesses tend to hire more people than they truly need. When times get tougher, aka 2020, the fat gets trimmed away. Protesting it just highlights one's loser mentality. Woe is me. Defending protesting it is just as bad. Woe is we. People out protesting obviously have minimal concern about social distancing, so they have no excuse for not picking up temporary work. Amazon is hiring delivery drivers like crazy, and anyone good with organizing their time can easily make a grand a week. If you can't get by on that in the short term, you have only your lifestyle to blame. TLDR: People need to stop being whiny little bitches.
I don't really get unions. I guess I understand wanting to be in one but why would you hire more expensive workers? And why does this make the Trailblazers or Rip City look bad?
I think all businesses have been faced with dire circumstances to survive the pandemic and loss of revenue...lot of people I know had to lay off expensive payrolls and roll up their sleeves to let family members take over the jobs for free (we babysit for that reason now with our grandchid)....caregivers and child care providers suffered alot...any entertainment venue has been crushed...they said they were cost cutting before the season started and hopefully just getting through this short season we'll be back to normal next fall...I'm trying to cut everybody some slack during the covid era...I've enjoyed even having basketball to watch as I can't go to a sports bar...I was union for OSEA...it has it's ups and downs...that said I'll enjoy my PERS...sure paid into it for decades...not sure that is sustainable or that unions attract the best talent at times. I would almost guarantee Calabro cost more than Kent..
Bingo. People can't see past their own greed. Unions were a necessity of a bygone era and have since become a net negative. People complain about Chinese goods and outsourced jobs, but don't want to acknowledge the main underlying problem: American labor is too expensive, and much of the blame there goes to unions.
Yes, yes, the narrative that unions were protecting substandard workers and legislation that made it easier and easier to drive them off had nothing to do with it. Please don't notice that so many U.S. jobs have barely or have not kept pace with the cost of living since the 1970s while CEO and other top corporate salaries have gone through the roof, and we've become an ever-wealthier country with an ever-larger segment of people living in poverty while we're paying people working in substandard conditions overseas essentially a slave wage to produce goods nowhere near as high quality as our union workers will turn out.
I’m both for raising min wage - drastically- and think unions are bad. Am I an outlier? Why unions? Why hire them? Pay everyone enough to live on. Then they won’t need as much assistance, and the money is either saved or neutralized. Improves mental health. Increases spending. I don’t buy these corporations will layoff people or go overseas and if they do we’ll survive. Fuck the idea that $7.25 has remained unchanged for this long. Pathetic. The money is there. Pay people. Disgraceful
If the price of housing and cost of living doesn't come down drastically even 15 bucks minimum wage won't make it easy to raise kids, pay a mortgage and start a small business. In essence that's all americans really want....to afford a house or even rent...start a family and a career without an endless uphill debt canyon to get there. 120k level houses are selling for 500k right now....that's not sustainable. Forget college tuition...that's like an expensive house
The economy has always had entry-level jobs for young people and second-income earners. Does the high school kid who works part time bussing tables in a restaurant to make a few bucks need to make $15 an hour? If so, then what’s a fair wage for the folks who have been working at the restaurant for three years and were getting a $15 an hour wage? You can’t expect them to accept that they’re going to get the same wage as the part time high school kid. And then there’s the question of what you’re willing to pay for your meal.
Well in a union such as mine before...you have tiers...ours was from 1-15....at tier 15 you've capped out other than COLA increases...then you retire and tiers get bumped. The restaurant game is probably one of the toughest businesses to make work in my view....I had one once and never worked so hard for a couple years to break even, pay my bills and sell it....I'm saying it's tough to go to school, buy a house or even rent one if rent is most of your monthly income or mortgage is...the cost of living hasn't kept step with the living wage but we're cranking out real estate millionaires left and right...part time workers usually are students who don't have time to work full time at Home Depot or Subway...high turnover professions...I guess I blame excessive greed for the glaring imbalance in the ways and means of the working folks.
I don't think it's necessary...Blazers news about relationship with the unions...people will talk about unions.
My career has been consulting on land development. The thing most people don’t understand about housing prices is how much of it is a result of government regulation and fees. We live in an area that has an artificially constrained supply of land, which drives prices high. Government standards impact development costs in multiple ways. It can take years to get through land use permitting for even small projects. I just finished a six lot subdivision that took five years to get land use approval for. Now my client will start the engineering review and land development process that will take another 6-8 months. By the time he’s through with that, his cost per lot is probably $200,000 or more. Then they will start building homes. The typical building permit, with System Development Charges, will cost around $50,000. Lumber and other materials and labor are through the roof right now. So, yeah, homes starting at $600,000 or so is pretty much a given. Think it has to be that way? Check out housing prices for similar homes in Phoenix or Albuquerque.
Okay I'll take this one. I'm in a union. Ironworkers local #29 to be precise. I have been in for about 24 years. Before that i was Non-Union. The difference was then and still is staggering when you compare the quality of the employees and work they complete on a daily basis in my trade. I can promise you there is a reason employers choose to go signatory and stay with union ironworkers. I am now a full time apprenticeship instructor So i not only teach our apprentices but i also teach the non union guys that cross over from Non union to union because they absolutely have never had any clue there was more to ironwork than putting a bolt in a hole and then putting another bolt in another hole. (One bolt per hole please). Welding technology AWS codes D1.1-D1.8 all are certified and trained as well as OSHA standard safety to every JIW (Journeyman Ironworker) as well as certs for equipment and master rigging practices. Financial stability you say? Yep employers actually would rather have a employee that is financially stable and has health insurance because then the employee doesn't blame the employer for his bum knee he got while snow boarding over the weekend. He has less problems with jobsite injuries and because the union trains the employees the employer can fire the guy for not following the rules. This is just scratching the surface as to what the differences are. Believe me i can go on but in the end it's simply the product they offer. What we do in 8 hours with 10 men it takes 3 days for non union guys to do with 20 men. But here is the problem. The non union contractor still didn't pay his 20 men as much as the union contractor paid his 10 men. Not that he couldn't it's just he didn't want to and he would rather give them a $500 Christmas bonus instead of just paying them $100 a week more for 52 weeks. The stupid part is that non union guy actually buys this hook line and sinker thinking he is lucky to get that $500 bonus. Like Rasta said above - ""Shut up and be grateful, peasants!""
I think your field as well as many others require union guidelines and practices....absolutely...I think it's important for pipe fitters, ship builders, people who have to get it right...bridge builders...no cutting corners on what you guys do. I've seen an entire mountainside of apartment complexes tumble down a mountainside outside Taipei in an earthquake...they found beach sand was used in the foundation cement.as well as filler ballast...basically litter......a no no....beach sand cement crumbles from the salt but it saves money and trucking distance
I'm talking about existing homes though for the working person to rent or buy....it's brutal....land development and new construction is a whole different ballgame but don't get me started on lumber....I live a couple miles from a huge mill with lumber stacked to the sky..I can't buy a truckload of lumber there..they drive by my property everyday...I have to drive 40 minutes into Eugene to get a 2 X 4 unless I pay 3 times that at the little ace harware in my small town....I understand that permits and inertia are tough....I paid rent for a building for half a year waiting to get permission to move a step before opening my business....it's a pain. In my neighborhood there's no shortage of land or homes for sale...but the price jump is purely fueled by greed....not construction costs...at least some contractors in my neck of the woods have worked steadily through the pandemic pretty much...outdoor work at least...I sure won't pretend to know much about permits and commercial property development here...sounds like you do though
