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I'd strongly consider it at twice the salary for 40 hours. That's 15-20 hours less a week than I'm putting in now and I bet it would be less stressful too.
Good point.
I would have to say, that depending on exactly what I was doing, I would consider it for sure. My job has taken me into a few assembly operations, mostly electronics. I have been on lines where they made circuit boards (Half automated and half manual for the larger parts) I don't think I could place tiny parts on boards all day or assemble iPhones, but larger stuff, like doing large metal punching machines, machining, assembling phone equipment cabinets (all of which I have been in the factory and seen made firsthand also) and probably vehicle assembly I would definitely do.
At least the places I worked there is a certain camaraderie working beside people all day like that. But the reality is, they made way way less than I make now, so in the real world it is not happening.
Perhaps you have heard the saying... Not sure exactly how it goes. Something like, every pushy company gets an even more pushy union. Many, many decades ago, unions fought because of working conditions and unreasonable demands, all for little pay. Well, unions didn't stop pushing after they corrected these problems.
Unions seized the opportunity several decades ago to force their companies into total submission. Yes, they were greedy. Corporations followed by exporting those jobs, thus destroying the union's bargaining power. Corporations also have their own interests, and some of them are ruthless in their pursuit. Nature of the business.
As of late, most unions have been on the defensive. Most willingly backed down by agreeing to concessions. When they don't agree to these concessions, all folks can do is talk about those unreasonable greedy unions. Folks need to take a closer look.
The UAW fought back around 2008. The company wanted their workers to work for $13. These were jobs paying over $20/hr. A pay cut was not out of the question, but the company was pushing too hard, and behaving greedily in my opinion. They knew all they had to do was force the union to fight, and then they could simply send all the jobs to Mexico while laying all the blame on the union workers.
Same thing with the twinkie makers at Hostess. Work for $12/hr, after ALREADY agreeing to concessions the year before, or we're going to kill your jobs and blame you for it. And that's exactly what happened. Product line was sold off, and the workers were blamed for defending what little remained of their paychecks. Many heartless conservative hard a good laugh and that was the end of it. If the boss came to you and demanded that you work for 50% of your current wage/salary, would you be a but PO'ed? I know I would have something to say about it.
I would agree some unions are on the defensive, I would also say that in many cases it was too late by the time they went on the defensive.
When it is considerably cheaper to ship materials and jobs overseas while paying an import tax on a product, despite knowing you product will probably be of a lower quality, and you will lose some customers, and will have many logistics problems in doing it, you have a problem. It was that way for a very long time in the United States, now as some of the unions have actually pulled back on their demands, amazingly some of those jobs have come back.
There are also other unions that still refuse to pull back on their rates, I have a friend who works as a welder for a union, their union bills at $10 more an hour, plus $25 per diem more per day than the private independent guys bill. The problem is all the union guys were just on unemployment for about 7 months last year, as the only jobs they can get are for government contracts and pro union companies (there are a few that are out there), the independent guys were turning down jobs because they were so busy. Some of the union members managed to get the idea of temporarily lowering their pay due to the economy, but that vote lost, so these guys sat waiting over half the year, and ended up having less income than the independent guys did for the year.
As for what happened with Hostess, I have not studied exactly what happened, but I will say this, the biggest problem with unions, is not the hourly pay, it is the benefits. It is not a secret out there that most unions have benefits that are even better than government retirement benefits. My wife's grandfather was retired union and got a monthly check for $4000 a month until the day he died, he worked in a union for 20 years after retiring from the military. His monthly pay the last year he worked for the union was only $5000, He passed away a few months ago at the age of 90, meaning he got those benefits for longer then he actually worked in the union.
Fact is companies can no longer can afford lifetime benefits for union members, hell for that matter the government cannot really afford to pay lifetime benefits for former government employees who are guaranteed 90% of their pay grade for life. Eventually that will eat up an supporting organizations. yet those are the benefits unions seem to fight the hardest to avoid changing.
I find this to be a pretty rude thread, I grew up working in the manufacturing companies.
Either way, it sucked but I'd take the job.. I hate people who think theyre "above a job" and then complain when they don't have work
For me it is not about being above any job, it has more to do with other factors. I have ADHD, standing in any area doing anything for 8 hours a day is complete torture, just like sitting in a call center. the other problem is I like being self employed and am very independent, I like making my own decisions and being fully responsible for those decisions, I have no interest in having someone looking over my shoulder all day, or telling me what to do all day. I respect those that can do the job but even for double the money, I know that taking that job would make my life miserable, and would not be something I could handle long term.
Are we talking about the assembly lines of the past were people were basically tools, or do we get to work at an assembly line where workers have a lot of control and pretty much run the whole thing?
If you accept to you won't be fired or laid off as long as you do the work at the necessary pace. assume there is no opportunity for advancement, and that the company will never off shore or go out of business.
would you do it?
isn't it what our grandparents did?
I'd do it because I only have 14 years until I can go on Social Security. With the extra money I could really feed my 401(k), too.
Incidentally my maternal grandfather was a sheet metal worker and my paternal grandfather was a builder.
Depends. I've worked in a couple differnt type of plants like this...but...not for the chicken processing plant. Seriously, im Making 100K, so that would be 100K raise.....but....
The working conditions were horrid. It was hard hard hard work. And if you didn't manage to get disabled from carpal tunnel, you still ran the risk of losing fingers, limbs etc. I worked on the safety committee, it was pretty low key, but we cared about not getting hurt and had some ability to change things. Even with that though....
A lady (who later led the safety committee while I was on it) got her hand caught in a chicken breast deboner....as it lifted her up she realized that she could no longer reach the stop button....and..yeah.
Another guy got his thumb caught in the hooks that held chicken by their feet while he was working the cleaning crew and it pulled him down the line before....something gave.
While removing chicken form the bones we used insanely sharp knives, one of my coworkers accidentally ran it across my chest, cutting through my smock, the shirt underneath.....and just barely scratching me. Could have been worse.
On the other end....Oddly enough working in the lumber mill wasnt as bad. I'm getting a bit old for that kind of work though. Yeah injuries still happened, but not as often. The work wasnt as bad physically, still a bit risky though. LOL saw a guy nail himself to a pallet we were building.
So yeah.....not sure I would....I might for the lumber mill, but probably not for the chicken processing plant.
I am ok with repetitive work but it gets old if there isn't any challenge to it. If I had no other avenues or I needed to increase my income for the sake of my family or to meet a financial goal that would better our future,then yes, no hesitation. I think that is one of the problems in America. People feel that low skill jobs or work that is just considered blue collar but requires skills is beneath them, even when they can't find anything in their field of work. My grandfather was a jack of all trades and a master of several, depending on the decade. He did what ever was required to keep his land and home and his family fed and warm. I see people on occasion working what ever job they have to the best of their ability. It could be working fast food or the grocery store but they apply their best attitudes and try to excel at what they are doing at that time. Most of the time this isn't the case. It is just a paycheck to most people, even people who have skills see it as a means to money. Work, no matter what it is, should be more than that. Ok I am being a little preachy today but I have seen some posts that have really set me off. lol
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Depends on my circumstances
