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The Forum > General Discussion > Unions call for secure jobs, too little, too late, you can't say you were not warned.

Unions call for secure jobs, too little, too late, you can't say you were not warned.

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You do what you have to do. Evolution will take care of itself. The world is not reliant on employers sacrificing automation and keeping workers on poverty wages because you think it is best for the worker.
Wake up to yourself and look after yourself with automation instead of dragging workers into poverty.
Automation is as old as the first employer that ever hired labor. Not exactly new as you seem to think.
The world will never come to its end of evolution, your $8 eggs will still be $8 with automation. That is the nature of business.
Posted by doog, Saturday, 9 June 2018 8:55:53 PM
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Doog, the point is automation that was only really available to big business, the car industry as an example, is now becoming affordable to many smaller businesses and the likes of government incentives/tax breaks and easier financing options have aided this.

Take butchery. A small butcher shops wage bill used to be in the order of 10 to 12% of sales back in the early 90's, where as now it's more like 18 to 22%. So wages have increased, rents have increased and energy costs have skyrocketed, so while 12% was quite affordable, 22% means ways to save wages become very attractive to many operators.

So you can try any way you like to turn this around, but the reality is the perm job is fast approaching distinction and the main driver of this is the unions and lobbyists who continually push for better pay and conditions, but hey, believe what you may.
The reality is the working world has changed, and these changes, implemented by the employers, have been forced upon them simply because the number one aim in business is to make profits, and while the work must be done, there is no guarantee it has to be done by workers, especially with the increasing accessibility to automation.
Posted by rehctub, Sunday, 10 June 2018 5:07:47 AM
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OK lets do it! reduce workers to forever low income wages slaves, serve the buggers right? ah hang on, who buys the sausages? who consumes the stuff? an economy is a finely balanced thing if you care to think about it
Posted by Belly, Sunday, 10 June 2018 6:46:59 AM
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The idea of working for yourself was because you did not like working for a boss, profits did not get a mention.
Anyone that goes into business specifically to earn a profit will be disappointed, as profits have to be earn’t they are not there by putting your hand out.
The farmer that used horse and walk behind plough his job does not exist any more, the world did not stop because of that, no different to what you are trying to defend. As Belly says the very persons that you are making into living poor are your customers.
Drive through coffee is the latest smash hit here.
Unions are a very necessary evil, to protect workers from human nature.
Posted by doog, Sunday, 10 June 2018 9:56:13 AM
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Come on Belly, fair go mate. Our "workers" are paid some of the highest wages in the world, & unfortunately more than they are worth to an employer. Employees are only worth about half what they can earn for an employer, after he has paid his operational overheads. Any more & the employer can not maintain & renew his plant, & goes out of business.

In the early 60s I was a technical expert in the plastics industry. We had my equivalent coming out here from the states to show us what they had developed, & we went over there to show them what we were developing. These people & us were on the same level in the company, & we were amazed how much they were paid.

I used the house/car comparison. They could buy 3 new Chevs a year with their take home pay, or a new house a year. I could just manage a new Holden, but it took 5 years to earn the cost of a house. The blokes working at an injection moulding machine in the US could buy 2 Chevs, where the bloke in Oz could only buy 3/4 of a Holden.

Today the bloke at the machine in Oz could buy 1 & 1/2 Holdens, but the bloke in the US would struggle to buy one. This is why we are loosing all our industry. We pay ourselves more than we are worth to the rest of the world.

We have to compete because world transport has become so cheap. Once transport costs isolated us, but not today. Today we can get a new car from Korea to Sydney, cheaper than from Sydney to Wagga.

Continued.
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:11:41 PM
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Continued.

We have done something wrong. If we could find out what & reverse it, we might improve things. Despite huge increases in wages, making us unemployable in world competition, people are not much better if any better off. After housing costs, most, even on 2 incomes, are no better off than I was 50+ years ago, paying my mortgage on one income.

In the 70s my dairy farmer neighbour could employ a couple of staff, milking 80 cows. Today milking 180 cows, they earn just enough to keep him & his son & family. They can't afford to employ anyone.

I wish I knew the answer, but doog type blaming the boss is a fruitless exercise in stupidity.
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:11:48 PM
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