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Topic: Massage Parlor
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 07-15-2006 06:11 PM
quote: Joe Redifer
A lot of what is wrong with the American industry can be attributed to constant minimum wage increases. Minimum wage goes up, everyone else's wage in America stays the same. I can see why people complain about that. Unions then go on strike and eventually most wages everywhere else get a bit of a boost. To survive, prices everywhere in the country must go up. And when prices go up minimum wage is increased again. Inflation is to be expected, but it is happening much more quickly than it should. Unions had the right idea when they were started, which is rights and fair pay for workers. There isn't any need for unions if workers are being treated and paid fairly.
I hope you were being sarcastic. Minimum wage in the U.S. hasn't been raised in years and it hasn't even kept pace with inflation. The minimum wage in 1966 was $1.25. Just to adjust for CPI, it should be $7.81. If you want the U.S. to turn into a third world country, where there's only rich and poor, you don't raise the minimum wage. Two people working full time on minimum wage wind up below the poverty line in most cities in the U.S.
And only about 15% of American workers are members of a trade union, so in most industries, unions are a non-issue. It might have seemed in the 70s and 80s as companies added benefits and there was tremendous job expansion, especially as technology took hold, that unions were no longer necessary. I received great salaries and benefits during those years and I never would have voted to join a union. But if you look at recent wholesale layoffs, stagnant wages, failure of pension plans and dangerous conditions in coal mines and such places as chicken processing plants, unions are needed now more than ever.
Also, while inflation was a big issue in the 70s and 80s, inflation in the U.S. has been at its lowest level ever over the last 20 years or so.
As far as all of our manufacturing going to China and other third-world countries, while this is unfortunate, there's nothing anyone can do about it. You either have an open trade policy or you don't. If you have an open trade policy, then manufacturing is going to go where it can be supplied the cheapest. My problem with this is that except perhaps at the low-end, I don't believe that the American consumer is benefitting from this. It drives me nuts when I buy expensive designer clothing and see that it's been manufactured in India or China or VietNam. The cost savings is going to the company, not to the consumer. Either pass on the cost savings or keep the manufacturing in the U.S.
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Richard Hamilton
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1341
From: Evansville, Indiana
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 07-15-2006 09:40 PM
Martin,
My problem with unions is that I have run into some real assholes on jobsites and they have an attitude because they are "union". We did an install near Chicago, and all of the trades were "non-union". After the theater opened, almost every night there were screens that were slashed, Toilets that had socks filled with concrete mix dropped in them, and even a pipe bomb. All the pissed off union workers, angry because we hired non union hard working workers.
Like I said in an earlier post, I was doing a job that I had done for years. The factory workers went on strike, and I had to cross the picket line every morning to do my job. My so called "friends", even older ladies would yell and spit at me and call me a "fucking scab". All because I wasn't a part of their little club
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I did a three week job in Venezuela doing a government resort hotel project...seven days of stops and parties before the job....three days of stops and parties to the airport at the end.Too old and serious to pull it off today...Enjoy ![[thumbsup]](graemlins/thumbsup.gif)
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