[Jeff Higgins]

"International Association of Machinists" is somewhat of a misnomer. There are very few machinists per se in this union. The vast majority are mechanics. While there are some skilled machinists in the ranks, the majority of them are button-pushers in this day and age of CNC machining. There is some disparity between their placement on the labor grade scale and what they actually do, as a throwback to the days when all machinists really were machinists. Some button pushers make a lot of money...

There are some amazingly skilled mechanics in this company. They have as much invested in their training and careers as any other professional. The notion that the best they could do outside of a company like Boeing would be to work as a WalMart greeter only serves to display the depth of ignorance and prejudice held by anyone who would voice such an opinion. Yes, there are union jobs at that low skill level. They are paid commensurately to that skill level; they make little more (maybe even less) than some WalMart greeters. They barely make more than minimum wage. Take a look at the wage chart I posted.

The average wage in this union is about $24/hr. Some make substantially more, some make less than half of that. The skills required to perform a certain job do not always jive with the pay, as I mentioned above, but they do for the most part. Is that really an unreasonable wage for a skilled mechanic, working on arguably the most complex machines that mankind produces? Jeezus, there are mechanics at car dealerships that make more than that, with far more limited skills.