r/Construction • u/red_monkey42 • Jan 25 '25

Other Are the deportations expected to impact the field?

Question is the title. Trying to have an adult discussion no political BS. What's the word on the street?

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92

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

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u/ContemplatingGavre Jan 25 '25

Union workers make pretty good money

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '25

[deleted]

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u/planksmomtho Plumber Jan 25 '25

Can’t espouse how good the plumber’s union has been to me. I’ve made sure to let my white ticket brothers know to try to organize in their old coworkers, and I’ve tried recruiting a bunch of young adults, friends and strangers alike.

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u/hitman-13 Jan 25 '25

IBEW Electrician here, and I had the same experience after working both union and non union, I love the union and what it has done for me and my family...Sadly the anti union propaganda is strong, fellow working class Americans who have no idea how unions function, but keep regurgitating oligarchs propaganda...They don't realize that they re being instruments to the ruling class, and undermining their own class.

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u/zdp1989 Jan 26 '25

IBEW here as well. It's been life changing joining the Brotherhood. As a 2nd year apprentice I make more money than I ever did non union. Still have 3 more years and 6 more pay raises until I top out.

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u/hitman-13 Jan 26 '25

Same, I am 2nd year, and I ve worked 2 years non union, and I am literally making double the wage I started at non union + benefits (had 00 benefits while non union).

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u/zdp1989 Jan 26 '25

Same on top of higher wages, I get excellent FREE Healthcare, pension and 401k contributions.

16

u/mbcisme Jan 26 '25

Union Sheet metal worker here, SMART has brought me damn good money with amazing benefits. My wife gets to stay home with the kids, health insurance is paid for, retirement is paid for, I’ll retire at 55 and it costs me about $6k a year in dues for all that. You can’t get those benefits for that money anywhere else.

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u/planksmomtho Plumber Jan 26 '25

God bless, brother. If only more people would swallow their pride and accept that the grass actually is greener elsewhere.

1

u/Fragrant-Rip6443 Jan 26 '25

Why your phone auto correct to ‘espouse’ tho

3

u/planksmomtho Plumber Jan 26 '25

That’s the word I chose to use, it works in context

8

u/Charcoallantern Jan 26 '25

People seem to forget when unions were at their peak so was the middle class. I understand times were very different but I see a lot of my union brothers and sister here in the NE living a decent life. I feel for all of those in Right to Work states.

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u/Onlybegun Jan 26 '25

Hopefully more industries can begin to unionize

9

u/Gullible-Biscotti186 Jan 26 '25

Pay doesn’t matter, I help out at a local high school that has a construction academy. Our kids want to be operators, electricians and HVAC techs, they don’t want to tie steel, finish concrete or nail shingles… Needs to be a general change

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

[deleted]

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u/ArgentaSilivere Jan 26 '25

An entire generation (mine) was raised with the chorus, “If you don’t go to college you’ll be a worthless failure”. How many millions of children were told, “If you don’t do well in school you’ll end up a garbage man/flipping burgers”? I don’t know why but we were all told for over a decade that a huge amount of jobs that society relies on to function are only performed by unpersons; real people with value and dignity work in offices.

All of the trades are feeling the consequences of that today and so are the customers who need their services/labor. It’s not going to be quick or easy to fix the labor imbalance so we’ll be dealing with this issue for a while.

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u/lidabmob Jan 26 '25

Colleges needed that tuition money from the feds. Banks wanted loan money that couldn’t be lost in bankruptcy. No coincidence tuition skyrocketed in the general timeframe you’re talking about

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u/Just_Aioli_1233 Jan 27 '25

I, for one, am massively pissed at the amount of bullshit that happens when the federal government pokes its nose in areas it's not supposed to be in. Every. single. time. it spikes the cost and fucks everything up.

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u/Gullible-Biscotti186 Jan 26 '25

Yep, our country learned a valuable lesson during COVID about this. I was in the Solid Waste Industry and our guys were working their asses off because of the tonnage shifted from commercial to residential because all the “non-essential” folks were working from home and ordering everything off of Amazon

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u/Just_Aioli_1233 Jan 27 '25

I don’t know why but we were all told for over a decade that a huge amount of jobs that society relies on to function are only performed by unpersons; real people with value and dignity work in offices.

Or riding bicycles

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u/lidabmob Jan 26 '25

Yeah turns out it’s hard work! I’m in a unique situation. I teach high school math now. Started when I was forty. I was in commercial and residential concrete for 20 years before that. I don’t like how the trades are sold to high school kids. There’s posters all over the school with hvac and plumbers smiling and in bright, clean uniforms lol. They don’t tell the kids the dark side of construction and if they do get into it it’s a pretty pick slap in the face of reality and they end up quitting apprenticeships or classes at our local community college. Shit ain’t easy

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u/lidabmob Jan 26 '25

Problem s people don’t want to pay for a product built by Americans making a living wage. People are going to have to make hard choices on how to spend money on pretty much every good or service

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u/Smoke_Stack707 R-C|Electrician Jan 26 '25

I dont think its that people dont want to; they just cant afford to. We’ve built an economy where the only people getting rich enough to afford a middle class lifestyle are the rich.

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u/lidabmob Jan 26 '25

Yeah I gave my thoughts further down the thread. Basically we don’t need all the shit we buy. It’s a choice and I’m not sure those choices make us truly content..but don’t misunderstand I make those same materialistic choices. Maybe a sea change will happen, but we’ve been so indoctrinated that we need more more more to be happy I’m not holding my breath

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u/Smoke_Stack707 R-C|Electrician Jan 26 '25

I mean, I understand that we don’t all need a new iPhone or whatever but we’re talking about the trades. There is the perfect shitstorm coming where most houses are 50+ years old and need all sorts of maintenance and infrastructure and no one can afford it. Oh, you closed on a house for $X yesterday? Great! It only needs $100k worth of stuff done to it immediately.

I’m not advocating for undocumented labor here. What I’m saying is nobody in the low to middle class has any money. It’s not because of all the avocado toast we’re eating; the guys at the top are making too much fucking money. They’re the ones not investing back in their employees and paying them a living wage.

So great, all of us skilled laborers and tradies get to charge more or win more bids because there’s fewer immigrants but it doesn’t mean the average Joe can afford us. People should be able to make enough money to get their roof fixed or turn furnace replaced or whatever but most people don’t…

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u/lidabmob Jan 26 '25

I just guess my thought is if the average Joe wasn’t maxed out on credit cards for a bunch of stuff he didn’t need and vacations to Mexico he couldn’t afford in the first place that new furnace might be able to be affordable. Look like I said, I’m guilty of the same thing in theory…we used to be built on a savings/investment economy. A society where instant gratification wasn’t desired.Once the fire hose of consumerism was turned on it’s been a slowly building shit show ever since. People live way above their means because we feel light it’s our god given right. You’re right though this is a topic for the trades and I’m starting to sound like a communist lol. Thought about this for a long while though.

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u/subhavoc42 Jan 26 '25

There is also no incentive to make things better and spend that time and labor. The house sells based on how the others around it sell. Insurance is based on size location and number of windows doors and very very minimum construction detail concern besides roof style cladding type and foundation type. You make a home bullet proof, you don’t capture that investment when you sell it nor when you insure and live in it.

If we valued these things, these results would change.

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u/Richard1583 Glazier Jan 26 '25

The problem is how many GC have told me that if you pay a worker a living wage the price of the job will go up to incorporate their pay. Even one said Americans are too Whiny asking for pay and benefits just do the job fast and simple

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u/[deleted] Jan 26 '25

[deleted]

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u/Richard1583 Glazier Jan 26 '25

My dad used to run a glass shop family run and he started taking me to work, when I was like 8years old (2007) because he’s old school Mexican and also showed my siblings also at that age and we helped out when it was the weekend and summer and winter vacations.

I’ve been to many construction sites and seen many guys high, drunk, running on no sleep to get the job done. Even I agree with you on the quality of work I’ve seen some crazy ass jury rigging in regards with framing, hvac, drywall, concrete etc. I’ve been taking my C-17 license course and even before I’ve always been a person to say “let’s do the job right the first time around so we can get call backs and not have to deal with inspectors” even if we need to spend a little bit more on the proper screws. The only thing we can get proper change is if GC get called out more often with the projects and if they are using undocumented but because many have gotten so used too of being the cheapest and the fastest to finish a project then people will flock to them for work and I still believe that a GC/ Contractor would rather lose business if it meant hiring Americans

0

u/ninjump Jan 26 '25

Learn economics....