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hammerdownat62 said:
I agree with everything you say. But on my dock, we drivers double as the forklift operators and sometimes dock men. I work at Con-way where we are trained on all the jobs involving our trade. You and I, we come from different trucking worlds. So you see, from my POV, if they paid a dock man even close to what they paid me, I'm going to be upset. I sometimes load my own trailer in the morning if I come in and I'm still waiting on freight, so I understand the benefit of having good forklift operators because I am a forklift operator, a dockman, a yard jockey, and a city driver and sometimes a linehaul driver, if they need me to be. From my perspective, it makes no sense to pay non-CDL employees 90% of drivers wages. Our company saves money because we are all cross trained and it makes us more competitive, at least that's my opinion. And right now, I'm more worried about my company remaining profitable against a bunch of new driver rules and emissions regulations that is strangling our industry to death. So as far as I'm concerned, the less my company can pay some temp dock guy to lump the freight, the better chance I keep my job going forward.
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I think there are a huge amount of people that either:
1. Have skills and can do anything so don't know that others are not able to possess those skills
2. Don't believe that if you have more skills you deserve more pay to use those skills
3. Don't understand that if you put ME in an 18 wheeled vehicle I could wipe out half of a city in about 20 min... and would keep going until the truck stopped moving...
4. Don't value their own skills.

IF you go to college and become a Dr. should you get paid the same amount as the nurse and janitor that also have part of the "end product" SERVICE to the patient? Just asking....

BTW - did you know - if you chose to get out of HS and work at a fast food joint - have 6 kids by 6 different fathers... Your wage - MIN WAGE - should pay you enough to support yourself above the poverty line???? What happens if I only have 3 kids by 3 different fathers? Is my Min Wage LESS because the poverty line for my little family is lower? UUUUGGGGGG

Love the thoughts!!
 
albag said:
In theory, the pure dock employee is as skilled at their job as the driver is at their's. Those men and women freeze in winter and swelter in summer. Their work allows a driver to maximize his/her HOS for driving. The respect and dignity I refer to is from one employee to another. In today's America most employers consider employees as a necessary evil.
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I get where your coming from.. but... the idea is.. what percentage of people in the country can you teach the skill of loading a truck to? What percentage of people in the country can you teach the skill of driving a truck to? What is the risk to life of working on the dock? What is the risk to life of working on the freeway? (Can anyone say FedEx?) There was another guy that got into a head-on collision with a Big-rig on his way home from work... never made it home, never will.

Like it or not - there are skills that are more valuable than other skills. If you want to make driving wages - get a flipping license!! If you don't want to progress in life - stay in the same job you got out of HS with a HS diploma.... It's all about the skill. While I wholeheartedly agree with you that it takes EVERY SINGLE PERSON in a company to produce the end-product... I absolutely do not agree that everyone's skills and responsibilities require the same compensation.

Just an opinion.
 
hammerdownat62 said:
List updated, as to your second sentence, I understand the concept of sustainable wages and the union's mission to make that happen, but I don't agree with it as I don't agree with a federal minimum wage. I think that people's wages should be set by forces that exist in the labor market, supply and demand, entry level wage vs experienced level wage, more skill vs less skill, who makes more for the company vs who makes less. Wages should not be set so that a worker can sustain a minimum standard of living because that causes rising prices. A person should learn to live within whatever means they have and if they want more, then they should do what they need to do to make themselves more valuable to an employer. Capitalism allows for most working people to be upwardly mobile if they want to be. No system is perfect, but I think our system is the best at providing the most people with the most opportunity most of the time. I think that union contracts and minimum wage laws artificially inflate wages and benefits and place undue burdens on companies in ways that have negative price effects for consumers who use the service or product provided by the union shop or paid at a minimum wage. My two cents, thanks to all for not running me out of your group.
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LOVE IT!!
Don't forget that if everyone is paid the same for any job they do... what is the incentive to take on the responsibility of driving a truck when you can simply empty trash-cans all day and have no responsibility what-so-ever?? I work my a$$ of learning new software programs and keeping my skills up to produce a product that reflects well on my manager... and others in my same position, can't even open a flipping word document, let alone create one! Just saying.....
 
hammerdownat62 said:
Where I work, our non cdl dock men earn a little over half of what a driver working the dock earns. It seems to me that dock men are not a sufficiently valuable enough asset to justify their relatively high pay.
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To say a good dockworker is not valuable is a foolish statement my friend,enough said
 
Triplex said:
And therein lies the conundrum - how to reward the good worker over the slug who doesn't care.
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There is no language in the contract restricting greater pay for greater contribution.

There is only language stating 'minimum' wages for 'full-time," those in 'progression' and 'casuals.'

Another 'can of worms' if considered.
 
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