Blue Collar Blues
Posted 08-22-2013 at 03:59 PM by Fortoggie
Let's take a small factory in a small town somewhere in America. Say there are 100 people who work there. There is of course the CEO, a CFO, maybe an engineer, a plant superintendent and perhaps three shift foremen. We would expect a few office workers and maybe three salesmen who are out in the boondocks trying to be sure that everything that is being made is also sold.
For our reasons here, say 20 people and the other 80 would be what we will call blue collar workers. Among these 80 there will be some with high seniority and well developed skills, other will be newbies with many fitting somewhere in between.
All right; we will place the CEO's income at $ 125,000.00 with stock bonuses, the CFO will come in 20 % less and the Supt. 20 % below that, with the foremen at around $ 50,000.00 per year.
Let us say that 25 of the blue collar folks are doing pretty well. That is they drive a decent car, live in a home with a 30 year mortgage and can get away for a vacation at least once per year. If their health holds and they are really good at managing money, then we need not worry about them.
That leaves 55 people in the factory who are at the mercy of someone else.
They are at the mercy of the salesmen who not give their problems a thought.
The CEO will be under pressure to keep employment low, wages low and benefits low in order for him to get as many stock bonuses as possible, ditto for the CFO and even the Supt.
The foremen are the middlemen trying to balance production and quality and still keep the workers good will if possible. So this leaves 55 people, more than half of the total employees in a quandary. What to do about their standard of living? How to plan their future? How to communicate upwards through the ranks; that their share of the pie is not fair? What strength are pressure can they bring to bear that says, we have gone to high school and graduated. We have come to this place rather than go somewhere else. We plan to dedicate 8 hours of our life to your cause but we still must live. Our groceries cost just as much as yours, same for all other basic services. What can and what will you do at the top to see that the 55 of us at the bottom [ who do not have a voice ] to see that we are treated fairly?
Millions of blue collar workers are caught up in this dilemma; so I raise the question here and hope that you will give me your best thoughts and possible solutions.
Total Comments 9
Comments
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We might consider that the factory is still carrying a large debt but is meeting its debt comfortably. That there are three other factories in town that are paying slightly more; say 50 cents per hour more. Also that the overall unemployment rate is at 7 %, does knowing this help you in trying to find a solution for the 55.?Posted 08-23-2013 at 07:06 AM by Fortoggie
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A Need To Know
To set the scene further, let us consider that most of the people in the company do not know the financials. I would guess that no more than 15 would have a clue as to how much business the company was doing and what margin of profit and those that do know are usually sworn to secrecy.
So one of the first things employees should do is to make a real effort to know how the company is doing.
My brother served three years as union president at a small factory which was connected to a much larger operation. Just before new negotiations for a new contract came up, I had seen a full page ad in the WJJ, telling the financial people how well the corporation was doing and even listed the dollar amount.
I cut the page out and sent it to my brother and as you would guess the local management was crying poor profits etc. At the proper time my brother pulled the WJJ page out, where he had underlined the high profits they were making and he said that management was caught by surprise and went on to give them a reasonable pay increase.
One of the reasons; the 55 do not know how to improve their lot is that they just do not have information and they would not know how to keep that information private until there was a time and place for it.Posted 08-23-2013 at 02:33 PM by Fortoggie
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To set: oopsPosted 08-23-2013 at 02:36 PM by Fortoggie
Updated 08-23-2013 at 02:41 PM by Fortoggie (Double entry) -
Let us be reminded of how much the company knows about you the employee. First they usually pull your school records, they will learn about your health and even do a background check. Beyond that the supervisor will make notes, practically every week about your work habits, your attitude and whether you fit in to the over all program.
Knowing this, the blue collar group should not be reluctant, to gather information about every facet of the business they work for. This should never be done with an evil intent but just to counter balance the information that the company keeps on it's workers. Presumably all the information the company keeps on you is kept private and of course all the information learned about the company should be kept secret as well.
Every detail of the private lives of top management, should be learned and filed away. Team mates should do research on the industry and how their particular company fits in.
Seven years ago I was blogging about industry in North Georgia and told my readers about some strange activity going on at one plant. Yes, they were moving machinery out at night. Most of the workers and the community was caught by surprise when they learned it had moved to Mexico. More next time!Posted 08-24-2013 at 09:07 AM by Fortoggie
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What do HR people do in their spare time?
In recent years HR people have not had much to do; so what do they do to look busy? In addition to keeping files on everybody in the company; they glean employees facebook pages and yes they can learn a lot about blue collar workers, that they really don't need to know; but still may use against them.
The trouble is that so many in the working class put things on social media that is inappropriate and it comes back to bite them on the butt. If you have 55 workers that you want to keep tab on, you certainly can with today's software and you can be sure that the HR department has the needed tools to snoop.
What might they find? Who's had any interaction with the police. Those who seem to be friendly towards drugs. Those who might be carrying on some kind of affair. Remember they have had time on their hands and by nature they are nosey people. Knowledge is power and that's why the blue collar group needs to acquire lots of knowledge and without letting anyone know that they are keeping their own files. Because in the " right-to-work" states, which of course means the; right -to- fire, the worker may never learn the true reason they are told to leave, often the stated reason is not the real reason.
So what if a team of workers, learn how many truckloads of shipments are going out
and how that compares to, say three months ago. What if they become aware that top management is flying overseas a lot, [ might they be planning to move the operation to another country?] Is the CEO a womaniser? Are the men being fired for failing a drug test when the top brass are doing the same thing but without penalty?
In future comments, we will point out, how to do your own PR, so that social media will work on your behalf, not against you. We will suggest ways to keep your plant from being shipped overseas and we will tell how to indirectly influence those at the top.Posted 08-25-2013 at 01:09 PM by Fortoggie
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Doing Your Own PR
In a sense all of us need to be salesmen and yet I don't see that in a lot of people. In fact the blue collar worker needs to think more about self promotion and establishing their own identity than even the professional.
Take facebook for instance, many blue collar workers do themselves a lot of harm with some of the stuff they put on there. You need to take for granted that someone at your company checks your facebook and other social media pages. They realize that they can learn more about you on these pages than they can from a resume.
So be careful with your pictures, be sure they represent you in a dignified way. Show pictures of you and your family.
How you dress both on the job and off can make a big difference. Many people dress to impress their own peers; wisdom suggests that you dress for those who can open or shut doors for you.
Professionals know that they must promote themselves for the rest of their work career. Your life and your future is no less important than theirs.Posted 08-29-2013 at 11:05 AM by Fortoggie
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Personal PR
What can you do make your own future better? If your company has any social outlets, such as a softball team, you at least should consider supporting it. You may not want to play but there are other things you can do to be sure that everything goes smoothly.
Admittedly some folks do themselves harm when they get in social groups, so be sure that you think about how you come across to others. It's ok for blue collar workers to develop good manners and good social skills.
When I was young, I had volunteered in some community work and unexpectedly got my picture in the newspaper, my boss saw it and was impressed. Years later I was asked on TV about, Richard Nixon and tried to defend him and that irritated the heck out of my boss at the time. So publicity can play both ways.
So what is your goal? It should be to present yourself as a real and valid human being; that you have a place on planet earth just as everybody else does.
You should be aware that the overall image of the working man is not good. You often hear, " you can't find good help nowadays."
Your goal is to be sure that can not be said about you.Posted 08-30-2013 at 03:50 PM by Fortoggie
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New Factory
Yesterday my wife and I took a day trip and went out into countryside about 70 miles. It was reminded that just a short distance changes the culture dramatically. Along the way we stopped in at a large flea market, I would guess that a thousand people were there and yes they were different.
The word I think is countrified, nice folks I'm sure but they come from a very different life experience. Cutting back through some small but picturesque, country roads, we wandered back toward interstate I-75 and there was a new factory going up and almost completed. It looked as if it could easily employ 100 or so people. I'm pretty sure it is to be a feeder plant, to supply parts to the VW plant, 50 miles down the interstate.
The good news is that it will give some country folks a good steady place to work. For the German investors, it means they can get labor here, less than they are now paying in Germany. Industry wants a workforce, not to smart but smart enough to do several repeated movements and do them hundreds of times everyday.
They also look for a workforce that is compliant and generally satisfied with what they are offered in wages.
What the worker will learn is that their new pay will not get them very far, and that they forever will be behind the eight ball unless they learn how to outsmart the system.Posted 09-02-2013 at 09:59 AM by Fortoggie
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Fitting Into the Syatem
We mentioned the new plant in the comments above. Now when the new men and women who are hired, will they know and understand the complex system that unfolded to create their jobs? It often starts out with meetings of both city and county officials. Plus there will be bankers, lawyers and usually an outside consultant or two. The question will be; what can we do to attract more industry to our area?
Then they will decide upon how much incentive in taxes and building of infrastructure they are willing and able to do. With the help of google earth and other software they are able to reach out and show detail photos of land availability and provide all kinds of detailed information about the work force and the wage level that is common in the area. You can be sure that the existing industries don't want another industry to come in and pay more. So yes there is a system in place.
The question then becomes, how to make the most of the new situation. First they must know that every car salesman in town will be zeroing in on them. All the furniture stores and every other merchant you can think of will be zoning in on the new money in town. Big merchants, like Sears etc.,study money flow carefully and will raise prices 2 to 5 %, all the time running ads on how deep they are discounting.
New workers and new jobs with new hopes and expectations will be ripe for the picking.The best thing for the blue collar worker is to be forewarned and thus forearmed. Try not to let that money burn a hole in your pocket. Remember that if the car dealers and the furniture dealers get you locked into a monthly payment you will not feel richer but poorer.Posted 09-05-2013 at 12:58 PM by Fortoggie
