5 ms·

It's not really the unions, it's just markup the venues charge on everything. The worker is likely part of the regular physical plant run by the venue and it i

by huxley 15y ago

It's not really the unions, it's just markup the venues charge on everything. The worker is likely part of the regular physical plant run by the venue and it is cheaper for the venue to have someone on staff to fix things. The electrician is on salary or steady wages. Each $350 fee likely pays for most of the electrician's wages for that day, so if you have 20 rooms that need electrical drops, you are paying 10-20x the cost of the electrician and assistants. You as an event organizer don't have a choice about whether you need electrical power for a room so you are a trapped consumer. And the venues take advantage of that. This is made worse because of the economic distortion caused by Pharmaceutical or Medical conferences which are so flush with money that $350 for an electrical drop is inconsequential. There are conferences where they'll set off indoor fireworks and hire professional musicians to write songs for the event. The venues get accustomed to event planners that write checks for every problem, so if you are running a conference for people like geeks or academics who may not be as lucrative, you pay through the nose.

smackfu 15y ago
Yes, the unions are partly just getting caught in the middle. They may have a high hourly wage, but that's all they set, and it's certainly not $250 an hour. The convention center is taking the money and the union is getting the blame. OTOH, it is true that the union will aggressively police their job roles, which may have expanded over time to include things that are just silly, like moving a cart from A to B. Ideally those would be rolled back to sensible jobs that require workers, but obviously no one has an incentive to do that.
- specialist 15y ago
  I was the IT guy for an electrical contractor. I observed the benefit of having set roles. You need fiber spliced? Call the union hall and ask for that skill and they'll send you a worker that absolutely will be able to do that specific task. The benefit of outsourcing the vetting, training, and qualifications to the union hall was huge. (And better than any temp agency I've ever seen or heard about.) In other professions, I have no doubt that silly shop floors rules (need an elevator operator to work the elevator) are terrible. I've heard the stories, many by union members that disagree. My guess is those silly rules start as buyoffs / payola (quid pro quo during some negotation years ago) and became institutionalized.

by huxley 15y ago

smackfu 15y ago

Yes, the unions are partly just getting caught in the middle. They may have a high hourly wage, but that's all they set, and it's certainly not $250 an hour. The convention center is taking the money and the union is getting the blame. OTOH, it is true that the union will aggressively police their job roles, which may have expanded over time to include things that are just silly, like moving a cart from A to B. Ideally those would be rolled back to sensible jobs that require workers, but obviously no one has an incentive to do that.

specialist 15y ago
I was the IT guy for an electrical contractor. I observed the benefit of having set roles. You need fiber spliced? Call the union hall and ask for that skill and they'll send you a worker that absolutely will be able to do that specific task. The benefit of outsourcing the vetting, training, and qualifications to the union hall was huge. (And better than any temp agency I've ever seen or heard about.) In other professions, I have no doubt that silly shop floors rules (need an elevator operator to work the elevator) are terrible. I've heard the stories, many by union members that disagree. My guess is those silly rules start as buyoffs / payola (quid pro quo during some negotation years ago) and became institutionalized.