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Gas prices?

ozonetrooper said:
I listened to a striking worker complain 'cause he was only making 38 dollars a hour .... AND they want a 4 day work week and be paid for the 5th day ! WTF Willis, I will be glad to go stand at the assembly line in the air conditoning putting together cars for 38 dollars an hour ... and I will do it 5 days a week too ! ! !



I am living on a social security check that is not enough to buy gas for my vehicle and they are complaining ????

WTF is wrong with that picture ?
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Which striking worker were you listening to? Obviously not a UAW worker since the highest pay lever is currently $32.32 an hour

When I retired as a union electrician my pay rate was $44 an hour. Was i making too much money?

In Europe as I recall they had shorter work weeks, like 34-35 hours per week. Is there something wrong with more family time? me time?

Since you mentioned you are living off of Social Security. Are you retired? Injured? No pension or 401K?
 
treb1797 said:
And they want a 40% pay increase. Sorry, get more realistic and we'll talk.
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Interesting issue with the pay increase I've heard 36% to 40% over 4 years. Not sure if 36% or 40% is correct, but over 4 years is correct, so either 9% or 10% a year over the next 4 years

One thing I know for sure is my union would negotiate a raise, let say $2 more per hour, I would not see $2 more per hour on my check. The biggest chunk of the $2 went to increases in healthcare, pension to stay 100% funded, apprentice school...etc..
 
I well understand wanting all that you can get. Everything is going up in cost and to just get 10% a year increase might not keep a worker in pace with inflation. I was self employed all of my life so I know nothing about unions and a collective bargaining voice. I could always charge the going rate for my services which was always behind the inflation curve. My only means to make more money was to work more hours. I spent most of my 55 years of employment working a 60 hour week. I'm not complaining. Sometimes working more and setting on your butt less is the answer to having a lousy yearly wage. Sorry... I grew up working and and didn't mind working more to live better.

We live in a society that wants everything effortlessly and many want it gifted. I worked hard for my income. The faster I worked the more I made. I've heard tales of only half working under a union voice. I have no idea if it is true. It seems that the auto workers are being paid a lot considering all they are furnishing is their time.
 
.........I've heard tales of only half working under a union voice........

I've had that thrown at me a hundred times, along with all the stories of electricians sitting in the bathroom to drive a job to overtime. I could go on and on.

Here's the truth. There's a labor unit attached to every single part being installed, much like a Chilton's manual for car repair. That's how jobs are bid on. If you are given a job to install part A and there is 35 minutes to install part A you better get it installed in 35 minutes, if you take 40 minutes per unit, you will be laid off at the end of the day. No ifs, ands or buts, If this happens to you three times you have to go in front of the union executive board, so they can decide if you should remain in the union, since everyone is hired through the union.

There's no free ride. You do a lot of work in 8 hours and you are beat after your shift.
 
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AugieTN said:
There's no free ride. You do a lot of work in 8 hours and you are beat after your shift.
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Beat is when you work a 10 hour day and then spend your leisure time repairing equipment, taking to the current builder or home owner you are working for, ordering supplies, keeping company books, designing builds, and trying to secure your next job.

I am not doubting what you say. I have zero first hand experience to base what I said, only what I've heard. A best friend that also was in the home building industry spent his last 12 years of employment working in the aircraft industry to establish some sort of retirement. He spent most of those years assembling something... I don't know what. He, too, had a time that the part was to completed. He said he could easily do three in that amount of time. Perhaps the time allotment was not well thought out by someone.

I hope that I'm not coming off as dogging a union or union jobs. I wish them well in their strike and hope they better their position. Everyone should strive to be compensated as much as possible to survive the present inflation. To have a collective voice lends strength in numbers. All good and I hope it works for them.

I loved my occupation and was well respected as a master craftsman. At best I earned $50 an hour, had thousands of dollars invested in tools to perform my craft, had zero vacation time, zero sick leave, zero health insurance, and zero retirement beyond social security which I was responsible for. I'm not complaining... I loved my work. If I had those years back to travel a different path, I wouldn't.
I'm not saying that the union is asking for too much. I hope they reach an agreement that is equitable. It just seems a lot looking at it from my vantage point.
 
For some reason in our society if you are asked how many hours you work, if you don't say 60 to 70 hours a week, you are looked at as lazy. Raising a family, family time, me time are not important.

Beat in my industry was after 8 hours. Once you hit 50 yrs old, contractors will start asking you if your knees and hips are okay. In the rarity overtime was required going 10 hours was possible, but anything after 10 hours was a waste of time due to mistakes and accidents working 12 hours.

The electrical industry is very competitive so bids on electrical work are very tight. I have a hard time believing your friend in the aircraft industry. I'm sure there are competing bids for work in the aircraft industry. It's pretty unbelievable the contractor bidding on work would bid work giving people 3 times the amount of time for any job they are doing.

In the electrical industry there are software companies with profit engineers that go out to job site and working with the foreman and watch what each worker is doing and document what every worker is doing at timed intervals. Actually timing workers installing different cables on the ground, on a ladder or on a lift for bidding purposes.
 
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I was also a sub contractor most of my life, 1099 and I are good friends !

Nope no 401 or pension, social security/assistant programs made me liquidate my IRA before letting me get on the dole ...


Right out of high school I joined the Carpenters Union. We were building a Grain Elevator here. It was a slip form project, which means once they start pouring concrete they do not stop until they are done, a week later ...

I had a drilling press I operated drilling one hole in a 2x4 block of wood, for a "knock out", which is a term for a place where we did not want concrete to form.

One day I was knee deep in shavings and went to the supply shack and got a broom and started sweeping up the shavings to continue working. The labor foreman screamed bloody murder and shut down the site saying I was taking work from his guys !

I got a hard reprimand from my foreman and was told next time if you need a sweep let the labor foreman know and go hang out at the coffee machine until they get one and it is done !

Yup that is union at it's finest !

No thank you, I know how to sweep and do not mind doing so and most likely will have it done before someone is found to do it, unless THEY are just hanging out at the coffee maker ....
 
Oh and I may have not remembered the amount correctly but let me assure you I would be glad to work 5 days a week in the air conditioning @ $32.32 an hour with retirement and pension benefits ...

'course guess I could always go flip hamburgers @ Mikey D's for 15.00 an hour, soon it will take a 6 year note to buy a hamburger just like it does to buy a new car.

Me thinks all them actors/writers/car assemblers/hamburger flippers need to live my life for a year and learn how to be more humble !
 
Always such amazing anti-union stories. During my career I never had a job that I was given 3 times the amount time to do any job. Do you really think on a competitive bid where it should take 1 hour to install a fixture, they would put 3 hours on the bid, so every time I install a fixture I can have 2 hours to stand around drink coffee and BS with people. On a competitive bid.

Almost 99% of the jobs I worked on had laborers. Never did i have a laborer or foreman scream at me for picking up my trash or breaking down my boxes, or told to go drink coffee while the laborers clean up.

Thanks for noting that you may not have remember the amount per hour correctly. It becomes like playing telephone when you were a kid by time the 6th person hears the story it's totally different. The pay increase for UAW workers, currently sounds like they want a 40% pay increase in one lump sum on their check. It's rare to hear anyone on the news say it's over 4 years or mention increases in health insurance, pensions...etc.. for the UAW workers. Like i mentioned above I never saw the full amount of any raise. The biggest chunk of any raise I got went to increases in healthcare, pension to stay 100% funded, apprentice school...etc..
 
The unions are trying to bargain. You don't start out asking for what you are willing to settle for. As a private contractor I had to bid all of my jobs. Time and supplies plus what would be a slight increase in my wages.. if my bid was correct. I might bid it at 8X and a later be told that they wanted to use my service if I could match a 7.9X bid. That was spot on to what I wanted to do the job. I suspect it isn't much different under a union voice.
 
All of my work was done by bid price, out bid and the cheaper guy got the job.

How can one justify a 6 year loan for a new car when he is only making 20 dollars an hour with no retirement plan, while the guy making the car @ $32.32 an hour with retirement and pension benefits is whining that he does not get paid enough ??????????????

I understand the wage increase will include coverage for the benefits/retirement packages, but, at the cost of the poor bastid who sweats for a living and can not afford it ?

The rich are only getting richer and the poor are only getting poorer, the balance has long been gone in this country!
 
In 1972 I bought a brand new Olds Cutlass S 442 for $4,800. At the time I was making $18 an hour, had a 68 Mercury Cougar to trade, and paid cash that I had saved for the difference. Over the course of 50 years my wages went up less than 3X where similar autos have gone up 10X (all round numbers) I'm not sure there is room to increase the price of autos by raising workers pay and benefits without eliminating the average worker market.
 
I bought my latest truck on a 5 year note, by the time it was paid off the trade in value was next to nothing compared to the purchase price !

How can someone afford a 50 thousand dollar truck in today's times ?

Oh, sure, the guy making 32 dollars an hour and asking for more ....

It is really a sad sad world now, I have over 12 certification/education documents for my line of work, (HVAC) and the most money I have ever been able to command is 20 dollars an hour, I am certified to work on chiller systems as large as my pickup truck, yet the burger flipper @ Mikey D's gets 15 for making fast food happen !

WTF is wrong with this picture ?
 
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.... and yet the fast food industry is struggling to staff their establishments
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California will not have that problem, they just raised their burger flippers to 20 dollars an hour !


Bizarro World at it's finest !
 
I rode the harley to the gas station last weekend and filled it up :

bbs.jpg
 
My gas is still $3.49. What's up with that? I went to being one of the cheapest priced gas to being one of the most expensive. It sort of blows a hole in my theory that my lower prices were due to my state's low cost of living.
 
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