this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
78 points (100.0% liked)

World News

22058 readers
54 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.


Guidelines for submissions:

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.


For US News, see the US News community.


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Then I guess corporations will just have to start paying Americans living wages, huh?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Whoa whoa whoa - let's not get ahead of ourselves; what is America if not the exploitation of the critical working class?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Factory jobs do pay living wages. I worked at a Fortune 500 factory in rural AL and the entry level jobs (running the street sweeper inside the factory) started at $28/hr. Operators that took OT would make over $100k/yr. The operators that worked there 20+ years made more money than I did as an engineer.

I’ve worked in factories in California, Ohio, Alabama, and my peers have worked all over (different companies). Factory jobs pay very decent and often have a hard time finding employees.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thanks for the injection of reason. I work as an engineer in a manufacturing plant. We're short-staffed with a high turnover. However that's because of the hours, not the pay. This thread is filled with people who think factory workers are manual-labor oppressed people with no upward mobility. It's borderline classist. Factory jobs aren't inherently bad or unhealthy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think most people still visualize these roles as we see them on TV where its a person in all white scrubs screwing in 4 things before passing it down the line for 12 hours per day.

The factories that can actually be profitable in North America need massive automation in order to function and most of the jobs are far more complex than we think. CNC operators, forklift operators, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly. It's the hours that suck, depending on shift. Do you forever want to live life in 3rd shift? If you have kids, you'll rarely see them... You'll be asleep when they're awake and at work when they are.

It's just not ideal for most people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Just to be clear, the hours suck because there's a labor shortage, causing us to be short staffed, causing us to put in extra hours to make shipments in time. This is a relatively recent thing. It's also the number one priority of the plant right now to reduce overtime. The plant is supposed to run for 8 hour shifts 5 days a week.

Also, there are plenty of people who prefer 3rd shift. It has higher pay. You're asleep while spouses and kids are at work/school. you're awake when they're home and working while they sleep.