Some work just aint worth $50/hr. We just finished a job. Well, half finished (I know, I dont like it either, Ill explain later). So a city hired us to do some work that typically, the city should do itself. Maintenance type stuff. Its prevailing wage (I can take a few weeks off after this one!). The city has guys fully capable (more qualified than us) of doing this work, and its city equipment on city property. So why don't they do it themselves? Here what it seems like to me: The city workers are union. I know that prevailing wage is set at the lowest Union equivalent position. So I know how much these guys get paid as a minimum when they first start with no experience or qualifications. And lets just say its more than double my standard hourly wage, which isn't terrible to begin with. We're doing work that probably warrants $20/hour. We're getting paid more than double that to do this work. Why is the city paying us so much to do this work? Because they're not allowed to pay anyone less-than-union wages to do any work. Because of the Unions. And even at this overinflated rate we're getting paid, its still way cheaper than having their own guys (who make way more than Union-minimum) do this work. Apparently this has been a problem for quite a while. The maintenance work we did was recomended quarterly maintenance (every 3 months or so). It hadn't been done in 17 years. Suffice to say, much of the equipment was in a condition that was well outside our contracted scope of work, and we were thus unable to finish some of it without or until a revised contract (I suspect some of this equipment will have to be replaced outright instead). The equipment had not been serviced, I suspect, because there simply werent any avenues for the city to find labor cheap enough to do it regularly (although they should have anyway, some of this is life/safety kinda stuff- theres certainly some mismanagement going on as well). Now I get that Unions protect us from 'the company store' situations where employers have all the power and essentially enslave workers by dictating wages and working conditions. But now wages are so high we can't afford to pay grunts to do grunt work and our shiz is all falling apart. This isn't working. Does anyone have a differing perspective, comments or solutions?
Let's consider the US. While they chant de-fense de-fense, rampant neoliberalism has ensured weak unionism. Why do the right wingers still whinge about unionism? Why don't they consider the success of countries who protect labour rights and have strong collective bargaining? Is low working poverty, higher productivity and manufacturing exports also deemed to be socialism running amok? Alternatively, and more logically, is the real problem in the US that it has not protected labour rights?
The robber baron and the union thug -- a dialectic of two extremes that never could get it right. Jeff Bezos and the harried, worn out warehouse worker on cheap wages. Seems like a great opportunity for a union.
