Quote:
Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
The privatization is pushed as saving money because the private contractors won't be subject to the same "government red tape" (e.g., unions and civil service rules).
It's pretty simple. My uncles were union carpenters and iron workers, and back in the day when someone got hired for a union job fresh off their training (a journeyman), at a point when they knew what they were doing but had modest work experience, they'd get $30-$40 an hour in NYC when the minimum wage was close to $5. The nonunion guys would get hired knowing squat at $10 an hour and move up with on-the-job training. But for someone experienced, comparing a $50 union wage and a $20 non-union one was pretty common. And the non-union work sites were also overrun by minimum wage workers (and sometimes sub-minimum wage illegal workers) who especially could do things done by carpenters on union sites. Never as well, of course, but they could do them.
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Here's a current wage card from a NJ Ironworkers union:
http://cms.impactunions.org/Iron-Wor...2018%20(1).pdf - wages over $50, total package is north of $80 per hour, including benefits
Here's payscale's survey of Ironworker comp (national avg. of $22 an hour)
https://www.payscale.com/research/US...er/Hourly_Rate
Think of how many low paid workers you need to have to offset the $50+ per hour union wages and come to that average.
