Detroit Comes Begging ....

VTXDave

Well-Known Member
my father was a member of iron worker local 60 for 55 years anda labor lawyer. I was in the operating engineers union. do people really want to go back to a time when there were no unions?
I've never been a union member and my income has steadily increased over the past 25 years while working in the industry. I now manage a department of technicians. This didn't simply fall into my lap because I was in the right place at the right time...I earned it. I went to school, got my degree, got years of experience under my belt...simply put...I made myself valuable.
 

sweetsmell

Well-Known Member
It's unskilled labor that a monkey can do, that's why. Like I said, I was part of a line and I saw what these people did...repetitive work that required a bit more dexterity than what a machine can do. I was an assembly line worker too...as a bench tech. I took the failed postal meters and troubleshooted them. It got monotamous and mundane...run through 33 machine programmed tests and troubleshoot to component level if a given test fails...whoopee ding. I wanted more, so what did I do? I went to night school/college and earned my degree to become a Software Engineer designing the OS's that operate those postal meters. 20 years of tenure for someone doing the same job for 20 years does not entitle that person to anything. If said person wants more, then they should strive to attain more skills and make themselves more valuable. Not too terribly difficult to understand. Like I said, my father worked a line for 23 years and never did one damn thing to better himself. He never went to school to gain more knowledge/skills and he never aspired to take on new tasks at work. He spent all those years in the Cab Trim Dept putting on manifolds to the tractor/trailers and such. Should he have been entitled to more? The answer is a definitive..."NO"
Well that is great that you went back to school but that is not everyone's cup of tea. I still do not think it is fair to pay just $5.00 a hr. because they only want to work on a assembly line.
 

sweetsmell

Well-Known Member
I suppose teachers with 20 years of tenure deserve their pay raises regardless of the fact that they may be poor educators as well. :roll:
That is what we call life. It is called equal opportunity.And teachers good or bad still have to pass a board exam and be certified to teach
 

VTXDave

Well-Known Member
Well that is great that you went back to school but that is not everyone's cup of tea. I still do not think it is fair to cut someones pay just because they only want to work on a assembly line.
You can think whatever you want, but if one believes they're entitled to more simply because of tenure is foolhardy. Want more out of your career? Then do something! Gain more knowledge/skills to make yourself more valuable. This idea of entitlement just "cuz" has ruined the American work ethic. And people wonder why we're getting our asses handed to us by the rest of the world.

If one doesn't want to learn more and thusly make themselves more valuable...Too bad, so sad.
:roll:
 

tipsgnob

New Member
I've never been a union member and my income has steadily increased over the past 25 years while working in the industry. I now manage a department of technicians. This didn't simply fall into my lap because I was in the right place at the right time...I earned it. I went to school, got my degree, got years of experience under my belt...simply put...I made myself valuable.
so...you think that might be because of your intelligence? so...a person not as smart as you should not be able to make a desent living?
 

sweetsmell

Well-Known Member
You can think whatever you want, but if one believes they're entitled to more simply because of tenure is foolhardy. Want more out of your career? Then do something! Gain more knowledge/skills to make yourself more valuable. This idea of entitlement just "cuz" has ruined the American work ethic. And people wonder why we're getting our asses handed to us by the rest of the world.

If one doesn't want to learn more and thusly make themselves more valuable...Too bad, so sad.
:roll:

Just to clear it up I myself am not a assembly line worker! I was but that is not what I wanted in life. Where I work now much money(over six digits) has been put to my schooling for what I do now so needless to say I am a valuable person at my job.:-P But that is me.But I would never be as selfish to say that the people that I worked with at ford motor co. did not deserve the money they got paid. I cant tell you how many times I left that place with bloody fingers form turning bolts and pushing push pens and stuff. But like the person said above me many many of them did not like their jobs but they had and took pride in what they did and that was their American dream.
 

VTXDave

Well-Known Member
dave..did you ever think your dad might be proud of the job he was doing and was happy with it?
What does pride have to do with it? Because he was proud, he should be entitled to more pay? My father is barely literate. When I was an infant, he picked crops in the fields with the Mexicans to put food on the table. Why? Because it was the only job he could find. Would you pick crops? Most Americans feel that a job such as that is beneath them.

When he lost his job at Peterbilt, I pulled some strings and landed him a job on the assembly line at Friden, at a reduced hourly wage. All he ever did was complain about his wages. He would go on and on about how he felt he was worth "more" because he earned more at Peterbilt...despite the fact that I'd tell him that he lacked any skills that would make him worth "more".
 

Picasso345

Well-Known Member
Where I work now much money(over six digits) has been put to my schooling for what I do now so needless to say I am a valuable person at my job.
WTF does that even mean, "over six digits"? So that means they paid seven digits?

Type in English without trying to be cute.
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
Sound like glory at first leave and then you get the axe. I have a friend that 20 of them left the union and they said how they dont need them blah blah blah and then not even 3 weeks after they left the union were cut back from 40 hrs a week to 15 for no reason. Now every one of them wishes they would have stayed with the union
It keeps on saying it is no longer available
must be broken. :sad:
 
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