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...based upon everything you presented.
Illegal immigration, combined with the decline of unions, has done a lot to destroy the working class in America. Here in Northern California we have definitely been impacted by both, and in many of the ways you describe.
My only disagreement was regarding the "non-union = substandard" thing; it is often the case, but it doesn't have to be. Like all things, it depends on the shop you work for. As a Painter (now retired) I have seen union shops which produced very poor work (although, technically, it did meet "standard of the industry") and the same is certainly true of non-union shops.
Substandard HAS become more prevalent in non-union companies; this has been exacerbated in the last 5-10 years by a combination of massive influxes of illegal immigration and shops who refuse to follow a disciplined training program. Profits trump all for most, but not all.
When I took my "apprenticeship" (I understand this is a technical term not truly accurate outside of the union environment) there were virtually no union Painting shops working in our area; however, the men who functioned as lead painters, foremen, and supervisors, followed a disciplined regimen of education in the craft, including subjects beyond application of material: safety, chemical knowledge, hazardous material training, etc were all addressed and compliance was supervised on-site. This was probably a function of the fact that, back in the early 1970's many of the older men had been union educated and spent years in that workforce; however, as union shops folded, these guys had to work somewhere so many of them entered the non-union shops. But they brought their craft knowledge with them and, in many shops, tried to instill those values in the apprentices.
And I managed to reap a blessing from those guys, rising to the top of my craft in a very competitive and expensive environment (custom single family dwellings, usually a second, third, or even fourth residence usually of 7,000+ sq. ft, and with some as high as 30,000+ sq. ft.) People in that class usually recognize what top-notch craftsmanship looks like, and they don't mind paying for it; they do, however, object to paying for less than excellent work.
In my years of advancement from apprentice to lead painter to foreman to supervisor to licensed painting contractor (I seldom worked under my own license but it was something I wanted so I could perform my own work legally, and with the customer protections which accompany it) I did my best to pass on the same learning style and knowledge of rights to the guys who worked under me.
Even this has ceased to be the case with the majority of non-union shops in our area; the desire of many contractors to put their own financial well-being above the education and security of their crews has been abetted by failure of government to crack down on businesses who hire illegal aliens (from wherever).
Retirement packages are non-existent beyond the upper management level (and even this has often been reduced to the form of ongoing profit-sharing). 10 years ago the company I retired from was 99% legal citizens and, yes, 99% white male (some females, but not usually, and most of them were paperhangers or decorative painters). This changed practically overnight (one construction season) when one local contractor shifted to all-illegal crews, and lowered his expenses (BUT NOT HIS RATES); in order to compete, everyone else followed suit.
And it was the worst of decisions, from my point of view. Most workers now don't receive any form of formalized training, there is practically no attempt to make them broadly competent craftsmen, and most don't speak english well enough to take nuanced direction anyway. You can tell 'em to "sand this woodwork" but it gets hairy when you try to nuance your instruction to include "sand this, but take care to avoid (fill in the blank) or until it begins to look like (fill in the blank). And this is what the info on the back of sandpaper means, and this is what it should be used for (fill in the blank)" etc,, etc.
The best thing that can happen is for the unions to make strong gains in the trades, but until we deal with an illegal workforce we are going to have problems ("So, you guys wanna' unionize...fine...don't bother showing up tomorrow...go ahead, complain to the powers that be...there are lots more where you come from...").
Sarah, I think we are in agreement on practically every issue you raised...with the one exception that non-union = sub-standard.
It doesn't have to but, given the tenor of the workforce today, I think we are going to HAVE to have a return to all union shops, in the trades, at least.
Peace to you... :hi:
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