Bay 12 Games Forum

Point is, you aren't going to get much sympathy with a "You don't have a job anymore because people making five times as much as you do got mad and broke the economy". Nobody is going to have "class solidarity" with the rail workers of they go on strike and cause a Black Thursday scenario (which is entirely possible). At least, not in any significant numbers. They're going to blame the workers for it.

Probably. Crab in a bucket and all that rot

Record profits cannot materialize trained labor out of the aether. They can offer more money - and the new contract does offer a pay increase of nearly 25%.

Record profits can do a lot to start ginning up that trained labor if you're willing to use it, though, yeah? Can do a lot more than just offer more money -- you could, ferex, run slimmer margins so you're not working your labor force so damn hard, heh.

... anyway putting some numbers on it, the 67k you mentioned, on a 335 day working year, comes out to like 16 USD an hour if they're seeing 12 hour shifts (i.e. it's barely more than bloody minimum wage in some states). That is shit when you're talking the hours and labor involved, minimal requirements or not.

It gets better if you're looking at a more reasonable calendar (the 250 day year proposed upthread would be 22-ish, which is still pretty goddamn abusive for 80 hour workweeks, but not as bad), but it doesn't approach actually attractive unless the hours involved are made reasonable (and one of the things causing this fight is that they're not, and the companies involved do not appear to be interested in making them so). A pay raise from shit to less shit is still shit, et al. People work those kinds of hours for less, but it's not something they do by choice, y'know?

100k+ (call it 120k, just for a ballpark) would be closer to 30-40/hr on 12 hr days (depending on the calendar involved), which is approaching at least less unreasonable for a schedule that could be including 80+ hour workweeks, but like... still. If that's what they're offering to get worked like a dog it's zero bloody surprise they're having staffing trouble. They have trouble managing that with nursing, and they see average wages even higher (the attempts to actually attract nurses, i.e. travel nurse wages, average around 50 USD/hr, stateside -- it's still not enough to manage to fully staff due to the labor conditions involved, of course).

... or in other words, it sounds a lot like that proposed pay raise is a joke, and a bad one considering what's being asked of the workers involved. They don't need a 25% pay raise increase if they're going to try to attract folks to 80 hour workweeks, they need to add another 0 somewhere after the 2 in that percentage.

Unless your family is secretly the personified ghost of Ma Bell or somethin', you're not a business and you're not setting prices to any degree worth noting. The power of your personal pocketbook is vanishingly small, even when it's giving tremendously strong signals (e.g. millennials being accused of killing entire industries, or as the case at hand, labor participation staying low in a particular industry despite increased monetary remuneration); as the saying goes, the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

There's a degree of immorality in most participation in modern markets, though, sure. It's just that it's damn small for any individual or organization that isn't, y'know, bankrolling lobbyists. Your family has other things to concern yourself with, like the likely fact that 50% disposable income is one bad medical emergency from vanishing :V

You seem to think this is purely a money issue - that they aren't offering sick leave because they're greedy and want to keep all their cash. Except that they've agreed to massive pay raises.

I mean, they clearly are greedy and want to keep all their cash, though -- despite all the problems they're having, the major companies involved are posting record profits. They're extremely clearly unwilling to cut into that in order to fix shit, because if they weren't, shit would be fixed and their profits wouldn't be appropriate for a satire. It's almost certainly not solely a money issue, but there's absolutely signs it very much is to a large degree.

You can't chalk it down to deliberate understaffing either - there's dozens of job postings at $67K+/year with essentially now requirements. It is a matter of not enough applicants and an extremely lengthy training period required.

If you're not getting enough applicants at 67k+/year (though that's actually pretty shit if you're talking some of the schedules that are apparently involved -- if you're getting that little for 80+ hour weeks, you're getting screwed, hard), then you're clearly either not offering enough for what you're asking of people and/or there's something else wrong with how you're operating. You can be hiring at 67k a year and still be deliberately understaffing if you're asking people to work themselves into an early grave with long hours and shit scheduling and such.

all i know is i'm tired enough i read the title as "skeleton curry"

that's much more interesting, and also possible

hypnotoad's on to something with dem spicy bones

Worst way I've seen a pet go is snakebite, hands down. Run over (car, lawnmower, latter got both dog and rabbit at different points in my life), shot, died of old age, eaten by ants (caged chicken, couldn't get away), put down otherwise*, neurotoxin is just the fucking worst, and to no small degree.

*I've tried to be better since I've been able, but my family has had many pets and weren't as cautious with them as they probably should have been Like, they tried, and their heart was in the right place, and most of the critters were probably better off than they would have been (mostly took in strays, in an area where most pound bound animals end up dead), but... good goddamn have we buried a lot of pets over the years, and only a handful to old age.

Incidentally assholes that speed in 35 zones and don't slow for animals can go right to hell.

Couldn't hurt to ask, some no-pet places do indeed make exceptions for stuff like fish or whatev'. The rule's generally there for the more potentially destructive ones, i.e cats, dogs, children.

Also yeah, I wouldn't recommend like an actual shock shock collar. There's things that just outright don't cause pain that works in much the same way otherwise, so there's no excuse to use one even if you're trying that general line of aversion conditioning.