Very well put. Unfortunately, most people just dont see the math. Installing a more advanced product, and getting less pay for it, is the accepted math here. Why? Because its better than standing up for yourself and risking getting no pay. We are a scared bunch. If its not a guaranteed victory, we dont want to fight the battle.
If you want good pay, good training, good pay, and benefits. Leave this line of work. Because you are one of the few that wants this. The telcos CWA, and IBEW have negotiated a new job tittle. I think its called "Premise Technician". This position is for the FTTH installs. They are looking to fill these positions nationwide. Top pay is $25-30/hr depending on what area of country you are in. Company paid medical, 401K, OT after 8 hrs, Doulble time after 49hrs, a pension, and these are union represented jobs. These are permanent positioins. I remember LMAO when I saw someone post here that these jobs would pay $6 an install. If these were your typical non union cable industry jobs, they probably would have been correct.
This is a business where most workers are content with constant pay cuts and having to work more hours to maintain the same pay. They dont mind helping companies violate OT labor laws, they dont mind being the worse compensated group in telecommunications. The difference in pay is no where near close. Others in the telco industry make double and in some cases triple what is made in cable and sat. Union clerical workers make more than the cable lineman. My girl makes 24hr in her union represented clerical job. Comcast is offering about 17/hr for lineman pay.
Others in the telco industry fight for pay raises, better benefits, safer working conditions, and other things. People in this part of the industry make the task a little harder. We climb poles for $6 discos, we accept an increase in the scope of work we perform and a decrease in the pay for that work. A while back when this same group was criticizing illegals for driving down the price of labor, I couldnt figure out what the difference was between the effect the illegals have on labor prices, and the effect the non union cable/sat worker has on labor prices. The only difference I saw was, one group was group had a Social Security card, and the other group had green cards or were here illegaly. Thats the ONLY difference I see. The effect the 2 have on labor prices are the same.
Re: A union, is it time
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