Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne Maybury
Bill
I was talking to a friend the other day and we figured that we could perform many jobs in an auto assmbly plant with a couple of hours of training and virtually any job there with a week's training and "experience" on the line. These people are being very well paid for a job that really doesn't require all that much skill.
Isn't it strange that a person can continue to collect unemployment insurance when they could be employed? I always thought that unemployment insurance was for people that couldn't find a job, that for those that didn't want to work. By the way, the same thing is going on up here.  
Wayne |
Wayne,
I think the problem is that everybody thinks their job is more important and more difficult. That tends to include you and me and just about everybody else in this Lounge.
None of our jobs are "rocket science". Yet most of us enjoy a decent wage. I will venture to say that any job can be done with about 6 months OJT max if the "warm body" has any aptitude at all. Certainly mine; that's how we're trained. Probably yours. College might offer a "well rounded" background but it is completely un-necessary for just about everything IMHO.
So even rocket science isn't a day-to-day, hair pulling task. Anybody comfortable with math can do it. Brain surgery could be done after 6 months OJT, although I am probably not alone when I say I would much prefer my "mechanic" have more experience. There are guys that practice law after reading a few prison library books until "job protection" kicks in when they try to represent someone other than themselves. I
once mentioned that postal workers would be paid the same as newspaper delivery boys if not for their union. JoeG came back and said, "...With the post ofice broke and mail delivery needs getting less every year, why not let the homeless deliver the mail. LETS ge real, paying 40 -50 grand a year to deliver mail-- let part timer's or highschool kids do it. ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE and... ".
Well ...what Joe said is true. But, if we were to be honest, it is likely true for all our jobs; we don't do rocket science. None of us.
The one exception to "easy" jobs might be that of a musician. And yet, barring prodigy, 6 months can get an able warm body to play just about any instrument. Not as well as 6 years might do, granted. And that part is true of most jobs that require any skill at all. So I assume that you are regarding all UAW as unskilled menial work. But not all of it is, less and less as robotics take the helm. I worked in a factory as an
Expeditor for a while. Easy job, of course. I was able to observe ...even assembly begans to look like an art when done well. A smooth flow of motion, hour after hour, not unlike a musician that never takes a break after only 3 pieces.
Some other UAW jobs are grueling.
Like the welders with 50 pounds of "safety leather" "brushing" out a bead in 120 degree F heat like Picasso might wield his brush. Or maybe the punch press operators slamming out sheet after sheet, modern day blacksmiths with considerably more violence, noise and danger. Perhaps the painters, when enamel was still in use instead of powder-coat. Try waving your arm above your shoulder with a heavy haz-mat suit carrying a gun and hose. Now try it hour after hour. It paid better, so some always bid the job. Inevitable carpal tunnel after a few years, but hey, these guys had families to raise and some were willing to go the extra mile. My buddy works in machine shop. Skills moved from reading a micrometer for a lathe or chucker to programming several Mazaks running at once. Now he sweats moving many part and material trays ...hour after hour.
For those Americans that think they are merely "paid what they're worth" by their boss. Get real.
This is true in Mexico. This is also true in China. Not just manufacturing, but your job too. The odds of a "benevolent dictator" like Henry Ford willingly paying his workers enough to buy the product are pretty rare. Middleclass is pretty rare. The Labor Class, aka Middleclass, usually has to "ask"; or benefit unaware from somebody else "asking".
I think there has been a general trend for factory workers to back off piece count. Many procedures have changed to prevent unsafe or back-breaking tasks, so, yes, the work has gotten easier. I also suspect a lot of UAW workers would like to trade us even-up for our jobs and salary. Most of the folks I met on the "line" in ND were a standard cross-cut of intelligence; they could do it no problem. Food for thought.
Wes
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