Chris-380
Well-Known Member
I have been in the ibew for 30 years, to get high pay in my local, to get high time, has to be Unscaffolded 150’. Then it’s like $1.50/hr. Did it many times climbing radio towers.... I would believe $1.25/hr.... my experience in the south is, the unions have never been strong....Be aware when the US manufacturers were trying to cut costs in the 70's to be competitive with the Japanese entry into the US marketplace the unions would not budge and consequently a component of their own downfall and thus the beginning of the Asian influence. The Federal Government under Jimmy Carter brought new and ominous tax and regulative impacts to corporate America further putting the nail into American manufacturing. Much or our large mass production has gone to robotics even when shown in the short term manual labor was a better value to ensure a stable predictable "workforce". I'll give you an IBEW example - one of our larger projects in the aerospace sector (early 2000's) was piping and wiring a large assembly structure; about a $12M electrical contract. The union agreement was such that when an electrician was more than two steps up on a ladder he received "high pay" which was 1.25 X rate. We learned a lot from that experience and now during our down-select process for contractors we discuss their labor agreements. Now Florida where we are is a Right To Work State which prevents represented labor strongholds however for government contracts prevailing wages are paid; prevailing wages are typically negotiated union rates less benefits. I think Mi, Ny, Il, and Ca could learn a lot from the Right to Work states as it's these states in my opinion that will be the last to recover.
you do realize that the union contract is also the Company contract, both sides have to agree on it.....
and no thank you to right to work (for less), It works better for companies profit, but the workers make a lot less.... there is never a right to work grass roots effort, it’s always funded by corporations, I wonder why?
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