I remember when the company I work for went union . I was a big shot in arm until I was told how much it was going to cost my boss to pay a Journeyman an hour . Then I had to go to school to learn my trade
Manditory ! If I dont show up on monday to class . My BA finds out where I'm working , pulls me off the job and I sit at home for the rest of the week , then I have to show up for class the next week . So thats 2 weeks wothout work .
The big picture with the unions in the construction trade is that so much is invested in training , saftey , first aid , benefits . That is why my bosses $80 an hour trickles down to my $40 an hour and I still have to pay for someone else's health care and get raked across the coals to the tune ot $400 a week worth of shit I'm not even using . I got to talking with Nordie about our trades and how little of it comes into play when people talk about how unions suck . Your not going to find a guy trying collect disability on our job sites . Getting hurt on our jobsite usually means losing a limb or even worse , your life . As usual there is no accountability for anyones actions and making a blanket statement that $78 an hour workers are the problem is wrong . They are not taking home that money . They'll be lucky to see $900 (which is good money to me !)
Our guys get run ragged , indoors , outdoors , hot or cold and dont even think about bitching about it cuz I'll double check your ass all the way home . I need shit done , not a fukin whiner . When someone isnt in place to set a standard of work let alone pay thats when my homeboys from the Home Depot get the job . Do you want Julio and Juan to build your buildings , your cars , planes ect, ect. I dont . I was trained to do a job safely , with the proper tools and in a timely manner . If someone drops the ball along the way , there needs to be accountability . Not whiping an entire industry off the board because Joe dipshit gets payed X amount of dollars . Maybe there should be a union in place for the management of these huge corporations . That way there is a level (ceiling of sorts) for these guys . You perform , you get paid , it's that simple .
I dont hear anyone bitching about fire fighters unions or the fuzz . As a rule of thumb for many years for every million dollars a life was lost on a job site . Through manditory training and education the LAX project ($785 million dollar project and growing
) has yet to loose a single life on the job or lost a day due to an accident . Accountability is why our industry commands better pay and we get it . I got an $8 raise over the past 2 years as part of our new contract and as a foreman is was $10 . $2 is not worth having to make sure a small to large group of guys is safe and goes home to there wife and kids everyday .
There are lots of sayings in our trade . An Iron Worker told me onces "You can count the Joes , by counting fingers and toes"
The idea of letting these corps go under and regroup is is a good idea on the surface but the truth is that the auto industry arm reaches out a long way and will hit you guys harder than you think . Ultimatley , they are going to have to disect these companys and salvage what they can to keep these guys afloat instead of just handing over a blank check . I can go on and on about why I think we are in the shitter but as usual the truth isnt as intersting
-beerjet-
