HKvette
Member
According to Kiplingers to be in the 1% you had to make $388,905 in 2013. To be in the top 50% you had to make just about $35,000. That’s about an 11-1 ratio however, since I told you that I am in construction $35K would be a very low annual wage. Let’s say a Plumber makes $50 per hour in Chicago. It would be less than that in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City but much more in New York, San Francisco and Boston so for the sake of arguing let’s use Chicago. If the Plumber misses roughly 350 hours due to weather and works about 1700 hours that would allow him to earn $81,600. If you take that $388K and compare it to the $81,600 that’s a ratio of about 4.7-1. That is a very long way from 354-1. I know Operating Engineers that run tower cranes in the large cities that I mentioned previous that work 12-14 hour days 6 maybe 7 days a week. They climb that tower crane in the morning, pee in a bucket all day make their picks for the job while being directed by radio not knowing what they are lifting, how much they are lifting or what or who they are swinging that load over because most of the time they can’t see it. A dangerous job with a lot of responsibility. They make good wages and a lot of overtime. $100K a year would be on the low end and probably more like $200K in New York and San Francisco but again for the sake of argument let’s say $150K for a good tower crane operator. That would be a ratio of 2.59-1. That number is even farther from that 354-1 ratio and that’s assuming that the President of the Operating Engineers makes the $388K. He might make less which would bring that down even farther. Bloomberg gets their figures from LM2 filings and often times benefits and expenses are part of that total amount. Don’t get me wrong, $300K-$400K is a very good wage but those leaders have the responsibility of running organizations with hundreds of thousands of members plus their families. Do you think that you are going to attract a member to be President of a Union and move to Washington, DC by paying them $50K a year? They don’t get bonuses or stock options so there is a huge difference between Labor leaders and the CEO’s that are making millions. I don’t mind paying my dues for that kind of representation. <o
></o>If you notice the middle class shrinking, it is shrinking at the same rate that Union density is decreasing. The graphs parallel each other. Coincidence?
Why do people complain about the GM bailout? Should the Obama administration have let all of those jobs and the smaller supply companies go down the drain? When Pearl Harbor was bombed thus dragging us into the war, the auto manufacturers (including GM) instantly quit manufacturing automobiles and retooled to make weapons, ships, planes, PT boats, tanks and anything that we needed to win the war. The ability of the US to mass produce weapons and steel is what won the war for us and we should have just let them go belly up without lifting a finger to help them?
All of that being said I hope that some common sense prevails with respect to the UAW workers and management at the Bowling Green plant and they can come to terms without a strike. <o
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