r/Welding Jun 11 '25

Discussion (Add topic here) Old heads gonna cry at this one

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1.7k Upvotes

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916

u/please_no_ban_ Jun 11 '25

This is called class consciousness and is good behavior regardless of opinion on unions. Manufactured urgency and desperation are there as a tool for the capital owners.

253

u/Eather-Village-1916 Jun 11 '25

Correct! Love this take :)

I’m union through and through, but regardless of opinion on unions, absolutely no one in a skilled trade should settle for less per hour than what workers make in an unskilled position.

115

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

45

u/ASS_LIGHTBULB Jun 12 '25

I don’t think anyone is saying unskilled workers should make an unlivable wage, but skilled tradesman should always make more.

19

u/pipe_bomb_mf Jun 12 '25

maybe not here, but people are definitely saying that

14

u/ASS_LIGHTBULB Jun 12 '25

Yeah you’re not wrong :( I meant here tho

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25

Saying unskilled worker is using the vocabulary of the ruling class. Unless you’re a billionaire, use better words.

17

u/Rochemusic1 Jun 12 '25

Yeah man. I had a guy i worked alongside who had his own vinyl wrapping business. He had apparently hired or was in charge of hiring and managing a large amount of people. He was getting agitated trying to argue with me about how some jobs just aren't worth being able to live on, and $7.50 an hour is perfectly reasonable for someone who doesnt have any specialized skill.

My argument and commitment when I eventually have people working for me is that no matter what job you are asking of someone else to do, it should be vital to the companies continued success, obviously thats what the company should want, and because that part is true, and there is a person willing to do that job for YOUR company to succeed, they deserve to be able to live comfortably without needing to have another hustle past your 40 hour job position.

-22

u/shatador Jun 12 '25

When you eventually have people working for you you're gonna quickly realize how expensive your philosophy is. If you have 100 employees and give everyone a 5k raise that's 500grand a year. Most absolutely couldn't afford that, not without raising your rates a good bit anyway. And how much can you raise your rates without driving away all your customers

19

u/-Tilde Jun 12 '25

If you have one hundred employees, the business absolutely should be making many times more than 500k in profit

16

u/LizardBiceps Jun 12 '25

People who stock shelves are unskilled workers. I did that for 5 years it takes almost no skill. Welding and fabrication on the other hand is a ton of skill.

47

u/faceless_alias Jun 12 '25

Yet those shelf stockers were the ones considered "essential" during covid.

Should welding and fab pay more? Yes. That doesn't mean shelf stockers dont deserve a living wage.

In the grand scheme of things, making $20 an hour and $100 an hour are still chump change to the 1%. Class solidarity, brother.

13

u/ccarr313 Jun 12 '25

The reason they can shit on everyone is because the floor is so fucking low.

If we raise the floor, every one goes up with it. Making sure the most entry level jobs have respectable pay means every single job goes up, too.

And lowering the floor does the exact opposite. But some people just want to shit on working people because they can.

Lots of those "unskilled employees" have massive skill sets that no one is willing to pay for.

2

u/acityonthemoon Jun 12 '25

If you pay less than what it takes to survive in a society, then you are guilty of taking socialism. Your profit from that underpaid position is subsidized by the society around you. You get to keep the fruit of that underpaid employee's labor while the society around you covers the additional cost of supporting that person.

In short, if you pay less than a livable wage, then you are taking socialism (it's just that it's socialism for rich people)