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The student loan threads here reminded me of something I saw some time ago:
Let's say a big college has lots of buildings and therefore lots of janitors to clean said buildings.
Let's say that half the janitors work full time and have a contract negotiated by their union. The union janitors are paid 3x minimum wage and also have a generous fringe benefit package which includes health insurance, retirement plan, a slew of paid holidays, plus paid vacation and leave time.
The other half of the janitors are students who work half time, have no union and no contract. They are paid 50 cents to a dollar above minimum wage with no fringe benefits. To student janitors, holidays represent forced time off without pay. Also, the union contract prohibits the college from employing full-time students more than 29 hours per week, thereby making it impossible for students to patch together a full-time income through multiple part-time jobs on campus.
Task assignments are given by building foremen who are union janitors. This produces the ironic result that the janitors paid the least are the ones doing the most and the hardest work. (I cleaned restrooms and did floor care, while the union janitors emptied trash cans from offices.)
What should student janitors do? Should they be grateful for the opportunity to earn more than minimum wage? Should they form their own union and negotiate for better compensation? What would you do?
The student loan threads here reminded me of something I saw some time ago:
Let's say a big college has lots of buildings and therefore lots of janitors to clean said buildings.
Let's say that half the janitors work full time and have a contract negotiated by their union. The union janitors are paid 3x minimum wage and also have a generous fringe benefit package which includes health insurance, retirement plan, a slew of paid holidays, plus paid vacation and leave time.
The other half of the janitors are students who work half time, have no union and no contract. They are paid 50 cents to a dollar above minimum wage with no fringe benefits. To student janitors, holidays represent forced time off without pay. Also, the union contract prohibits the college from employing full-time students more than 29 hours per week, thereby making it impossible for students to patch together a full-time income through multiple part-time jobs on campus.
Task assignments are given by building foremen who are union janitors. This produces the ironic result that the janitors paid the least are the ones doing the most and the hardest work. (I cleaned restrooms and did floor care, while the union janitors emptied trash cans from offices.)
What should student janitors do? Should they be grateful for the opportunity to earn more than minimum wage? Should they form their own union and negotiate for better compensation? What would you do?
Why couldn't they join the union that was already there?
they should focus on graduating, and building skills that are useful for a real job.
i worked as a student web developer in college, making minimum wage. was it fair? hah. no. I was surrounded by lazy , incompetent bureaucrats in some Dean's office, who were getting paid $50k, $100k /year to delegate work to me. I used that job, as well as the all the other crap jobs I worked in my youth, as motivation to learn skills that are useful in a career.
Oh, and use this as a learning experience, that unions are the devil's work.
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