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Sure, in a modern plastics factory there will be a couple of machine experts on shift who roam around the shop floor troubleshooting and fixing things. But for

Sure, in a modern plastics factory there will be a couple of machine experts on shift who roam around the shop floor troubleshooting and fixing things. But for every one of them, there are dozens if not hundreds of workers just standing there feeding and unloading the machine, pressing buttons, cutting flash off of parts, and loading pallets. There are a ton of jobs in a factory that require little to no skill or intelligence, even today. I'm not sure why everyone is trying to make it seem like everything is high skilled labor, because it's not, even in a heavy factory. Trust me - the guy in the forge doesn't need to be even as remotely smart as a programmer.

lsc 9y ago
Huh. But I would assume that pay scales with skill? I mean I did warehouse labor one summer myself for a few months, and they mostly wanted people who could show up on time, who could pay enough attention to get a list of compact disks into a shipping box, but it paid almost nothing. (And I can't really show up on time, and that level of focus on something that boring is quite difficult for me, so it didn't last long) I assume that those who have good paying factory jobs are going to have jobs that require a degree of skill. I kinda find it unlikely that this has changed over time. My point is just that I think people might be thinking of work that requires skill or training or something when they talk about high paying factory work. I don't think the 50s were so different that unskilled labor paid the same as skilled or semi skilled labor, and there is a lot of the latter to be done in a factory.
- brandonmenc 9y ago
  > I assume that those who have good paying factory jobs are going to have jobs that require a degree of skill. I kinda find it unlikely that this has changed over time. In union shops, the pay rate is dictated mostly by seniority. There's definitely some skill-based variation, but the guy driving a forklift for 40 years is likely making more than the fresh hire wiring the electronics on a train.
  - lsc 9y ago
    I thought pay was stratified among roles. For that matter, I would assume that the two would be in different unions. I don't think a forklift operator would be in the ibew with the electrician.
    - brandonmenc 9y ago
      afaik, large shops are usually organized by a single union. For example, GE Aviation is organized by IBEW and GE Transportation is organized by UE. The situation you're talking about, I think, is more common in construction.

lsc 9y ago

Huh. But I would assume that pay scales with skill? I mean I did warehouse labor one summer myself for a few months, and they mostly wanted people who could show up on time, who could pay enough attention to get a list of compact disks into a shipping box, but it paid almost nothing. (And I can't really show up on time, and that level of focus on something that boring is quite difficult for me, so it didn't last long) I assume that those who have good paying factory jobs are going to have jobs that require a degree of skill. I kinda find it unlikely that this has changed over time. My point is just that I think people might be thinking of work that requires skill or training or something when they talk about high paying factory work. I don't think the 50s were so different that unskilled labor paid the same as skilled or semi skilled labor, and there is a lot of the latter to be done in a factory.

brandonmenc 9y ago
> I assume that those who have good paying factory jobs are going to have jobs that require a degree of skill. I kinda find it unlikely that this has changed over time. In union shops, the pay rate is dictated mostly by seniority. There's definitely some skill-based variation, but the guy driving a forklift for 40 years is likely making more than the fresh hire wiring the electronics on a train.
- lsc 9y ago
  I thought pay was stratified among roles. For that matter, I would assume that the two would be in different unions. I don't think a forklift operator would be in the ibew with the electrician.
  - brandonmenc 9y ago
    afaik, large shops are usually organized by a single union. For example, GE Aviation is organized by IBEW and GE Transportation is organized by UE. The situation you're talking about, I think, is more common in construction.