Quote:
Originally Posted by d-ray657
You make plenty of false assumptions. A lot of these workers spend several years in an apprentice program gaining the skills for their trade. Others invest years and years in a job developing a skill set that benefits their employer. A fair contract recognizes the investment of time and effort that workers make toward the profitability of the company. It reflects the value that the workers add to the product. A fair contract certainly allows people to work at a wage level that provides decent housing, nutrition and health care - and education for their kids.
The people I come in contact with are interested in working hard and producing a good product (or building), or in keeping people and property safe, protecting the health of their patients, or providing other services that people expect to find in the marketplace.
You appear to have a warped view of the people who go to work daily to try their best to earn a living. Indeed, you must really have a troubled soul to carry such hatred toward other people who are not as "good" as you. Was all that money really worth it?
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Condescension from someone who purports to have cornered the market on morality.
It is a legitimate question to ask the question: what is the market value of a particular job, particularly unskilled labor. Not all union jobs require apprenticeship programs, and for those that do the unions try to make damn sure that they achieve cartel status for the utilization of that labor.
Take this contract for instance:
http://hotelworkers.org/images/uploa..._Agreement.pdf
This year, a dishwasher at a union NY area hotel will make $30.8714 per hour. A pot washer will make $31.1043. Housekeepers will be in the $32/ hour range. $31/hour doing hotel laundry.
Now, I have no malice, envy or ill - will against folks who earn those wages doing those jobs. More power to them. Also, the NY hotel business is pretty flush being one of the world's major destination, so those wages - at major hotels - are likely sustainable in the near term. Maybe in Chicago and L.A as well. But just about anywhere else? Not so much. Not even half if that in cities like Detroit, Cincinnati, Indianapolis or I suspect Atlanta. Or even
Washington DC.
It would be great if that was possible, but the reality is that certain job functions have limited value. Even a union contract recognizes this. Using your standard, does a housekeeper have less "investment of time and effort ... toward the profitability of the company" than a cook? No, but a union contact for a hotel often pays the cook more. Which might seem counter-intuitive: I'd rather have a bland meal at a hotel versus an "almost clean" hotel room. But cooks have typically have more training, require more on the job experience to become proficient than a housekeeper does. This doesn't diminish the value of the work that the housekeeper does at the hotel, it simply prices that labor in more in line with the knowledge, skills and abilities.
This also explains why the concept of a "living wage" is flawed. Nice idea, but flawed.