I work in Detroit suburbs for the largest Non Union car hauler in the country. I work for an Ok company, the company I work for is dime smart and dollar dumb, let me explain. Car haulers use hydraulics to move around the ramps on the trucks to load and unload, 8 years ago we decided to go with electric 24 volt PTO's With 6 battery's we are playing with about 5-6K amps at 24 volts We burn up on average in a year: 24 batterys, 2 alternators 3-5, 2 PTO motors, 30 ft of 4/0 wire. We have around about 1100 trucks in our fleet all of them less then 8 y/o. This is on average around 6000-8000 dollars a year on each truck I think this a low number but its ok Where if I install a wet pto for a cost of 3000 +/- which runs while the truck is idling, and burn about 2 gallons of diesel per load and unload ( the trucks idle even with electric system cant keep up with out running) this week alone we spent 50k on road calls for no starts, get where this is going... management still doesn't want to listen to the mechanics when they ask for suggestions and we tell them to eliminate the electric PTO system.
Aside from the above statement Michigan is crumbling, middle class is gone I remember when I was a kid all my friends dads where either steel workers, or worked in assembly plants and made $40-50K a year and did very well. I can remember thinking when I was 18 and took a job in a factory if made 40K Id be set that was in 1998 only made $18500 or so. But I was on my own even before I graduated high school. last year I just broke 50K myself and with my wife working its still damn tough! We don't drive new cars or even close My truck is 04 2500 GM Her car is 99 Ford escort, Don't laugh the car has 250000 miles on it and runs like a top. I don't live in a new home or even close my house was built in 1945 just like all the other homes in my city and surrounding city's they were built for the GI's coming home. We my wife and I have worked our ass off keeping our home when the economy went south in 07-08 worked 35 hrs a week for 6 months but we made it, I made it a point to not claim bankruptcy and take the easy way out. Like most everyone else did, Hay dumbass you spent it time to pay the fiddler whore!
Those that say Unions suck and they are for the lazy Don't under stand what they are saying or have never worked a day in there life. The union pay scale idea/mentality is the reason for the middle class. Henry Ford created the middle class $5 a day was good money when he instutided it. Every job around here in the Rust belt area { Michigan ,Ohio, Indiana, }is driven by union wages. From, my wage to Wallgreens to Mc Donalds to Gas station, Auto parts guys, every thing is linked to the unions like it or not. Think about it why do you make what you make? is because of your incrediable knowledge? doubt it, its because somewhere sometime someone sat down and said if the union is going to pay the diesel mechanic $35 an hour and I want a good to or OK mechanics to work on my stuff, guess Ill start out cheap at 20 hr and see what I get. Where did minimum wage come from? No its not what people think its for, its a starting point to say Joe Slipnshit is going to get at least $8.50 an hour to mop floors and talk **** behind a registar and build a set of skills. This is what my generation dosent get its a starting point that's it no more no less either. Its not to raise a family on. maybe support 1 person. Its 14500 a year in case your wondering after taxes.
Maybe Im slow fat and dumb? Instead of looking at the things in front of you try to look at the whole picture how its all linked together. I am probably wrong on all of this but its how I feel.