Teamsters Be Gettin Feisty

The real answer to your question is what kind of skill does the job take? If it is an entry skill then it should be paid as so. If you are a manager then you are not exactly an entry skilled worker and such should be paid as so. More responsibility means more money in most aspects of working.

If you are depending on MCD's being your money maker and expect to be paid a living wage then I don't know what to tell you. In some places they sure could make it but not all places are the same. With your logic everyone should be able to make it on the same wage no matter where at in USA. Why have a Lower, Middle, and upper class?

Also whom am I to tell someone else what they can or cannot pay their employees. If they run a successful business they will pay what they need to for the services they need vs what others are willing to pay or go out of business.

 

So are you putting a limit on what someone can make as a company or something? Just because someone can afford something does not mean they just hand it out to people. People that want a living wage needs to get out and earn it since nothing should be just given to you.

 

I am not saying everyone should earn the same, nor am I saying skill should not be rewarded. I am saying anyone who works a 40 hour week should be able to maintain a subsistence lifestyle without any government subsidy. Any entry level worker should be able to support himself. I would argue that he should also be able to support a partner, one kid, and a dog. I might be convinced that subbing in a cat for the dog should be allowed, but we can quibble on the details at length .

I also say that if the workers at a business want to discuss wage and working conditions, they should be allowed to. If they want to negotiate their labor as a group, they should be allowed to. A business owner can combine with other businesses to create a corporation to leverage their buying power, why can't the workers? The business will do what they can to keep costs low and profits high - why shouldn't a worker do the same?

You say that you should not be in a position to tell someone else what they can pay their employees. So what allows you to say what is appropriate for an employee to demand for their wages? The free market doesn't just work for the benefit of capital. You wouldn't haul freight below your break even point, so why would a McJob worker trade his labor for less than a living wage?

 

I don't disagree on how a worker should do everything they can to get a better wage. That is normally the kind of person that will work harder than the next person and might even move up in the chain of command to get the money they want. If everyone was handed all that out on just a 40 hour work week in any kind of job then it would have to be by the government hand outs. No way a mom and pop company could afford to pay people that kind of money. Then all you would have is government and large companies that control the government.

So with this below you mean to tell me people do not haul below the break even point? How do people go out of business then? Everyone has the right to neg. a better wage or job for them. No one is holding anyone back but ones self in the USA. I will just agree to disagree with you as I know your views are no where near the same as mine.
(You wouldn't haul freight below your break even point, so why would a McJob worker trade his labor for less than a living wage?)

 

Any company that can't pay their workers a living wage can't afford to be in business. If that means I can't get an Egg McMuffin at 0300 or a Quarter Pounder at 2200, so be it.

The only difference between your views and mine is the skill level at which a person gets to negotiate their wage. If a burger flipper wants to try and negotiate a wage equivalent to a pipe fitter, I'm not going to stand in his way. I'll encourage it, because that might make the pipe fitter demand pay equivalent to his skill, and maybe we'll move away from mercantilism and towards capitalism where wages are high and profits low. Adam Smith on Profits--Paradox Lost and Regained on JSTOR

 

That sounds an awful lot like socialism.

 

It does, but it's straight out of Adam Smith

 

i hope they do go on strike.....

we ain't had a national disaster since the pandemic.

i hope they walk the picket lines for weeks, on end, in the broiling heat, and humidity

we need stock piled packages, so that when they settle and get back to work..??

that they have to work 20 + hours a day to catch up

7 days a week, and holidays.

that'll show'em

 

Out of his ###? Seriously though, if there is no possibility of high profits there is no incentive to start a business. If no one starts a business there is no jobs.

For the most part these jobs are menial. There are two paths forward in life. Work smart(develop an in demand skill) or work hard(there are more than 40 hours in a week). Those who really thrive do both. If someone is content to do neither then I say they don’t deserve more than they give. The world owes you nothing.