Daria, you cite certain things that leave me wondering. How did you “witness thousands of women and men lose jobs with decent pay and benefits as offices closed around the US“. What makes you think that there’s an “appalling trend to remove science and critical thinking from the K-12 curriculums” when exactly the opposite is true? There’…
Daria, you cite certain things that leave me wondering. How did you “witness thousands of women and men lose jobs with decent pay and benefits as offices closed around the US“. What makes you think that there’s an “appalling trend to remove science and critical thinking from the K-12 curriculums” when exactly the opposite is true? There’s a nation-wide movement to strengthen and emphasize STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in public schools. I have witnessed this first hand, I’m a high school teacher. You and Ellen are both right about robots replacing jobs. Robots eliminate some jobs, and create other, higher value jobs for programming and monitoring. The jobs created are fewer in number than the jobs eliminated. You’re also right that there’s been little success in retraining coal and rust belt workers. The main reason is that there hadn’t been a concerted effort to do so. Another reason is that, absent a willingness to move, similar quality jobs may not exist in those same locales. Overall, there are promising trends. Unemployment is historically low, demand for workers is high and the result is that wages and benefits are starting to grow. Also, national support for unions is higher than it’s been in decades.
JR, I worked for a major telecom in mid level management. In 1998 there were literally thousands of Operators employed by the company. With a merger, the company grew even more. Beginning in 2000 Operator and Information Services Technology introduced what was called a whisper, the operator heard the customer's request before the operator greeted the customer. The goal was that the Average Work Time would drop significantly, from 25 - 30 seconds per call to under 12 seconds per call thus boosting productivity and eliminating the need foras many warm bodies to take calls. Dropping the AWT also meant that the Call Wait Time could be significantly reduced thus pushing more customers through the pipeline faster. BEFORE this technological rolled out , in the late 90s, the Telecom executives went to the Communication Workers of America and hammered out a new contract for new hires from about 1997. The Agent Services contract was bare bones featuring low starting pay with a low top pay ceiling. Paid and unpaid leave was decreased. Overtime pay was also reduced. Healthcare benefits were excellent at first but became less so as time went on. What was unknown to the Traditional side of the house was that their contract was going to be phased out either by office closures, forcing the Traditional Contract Operators to move into an Agent Contract Office at REDUCED WAGES or having them apply for other positions with no guarantee of employment. So, the Agent offices opened, the technology was introduced and fine tuned, the Traditional offices were closed. As the technology became more advanced the need for warm bodies dropped. More offices closed until all but one Agent office remained, then it closed. No there are no more Union contract employees in Operator and Information Services. The company used a very low number of exclusively non contract employees to handle calls. It does to this day. So, yes, when I say I watched thousands of people lose their jobs, I mean it. I was involved in breaking the news to employees that their office would be closing on thus and such date. I was on conference calls where hundreds of people were surplussed at a time. I was surplussed as well, as were other members of upper, mid and lower levels of management. On a mass conference call of hundreds.
Science and critical thinking in schools: perhaps you are lucky and live in an area where the school district is not run by a conservative bunch of people who believe that science is the devil's tool. I'm glad. I hope, too, you teach in a district where conservative, faith based crap isn't being dished out in history and social studies classes.
Unemployment is historically low, and there are thousands of jobs out there but many of them are low paying service industry jobs where, in some cases, the starting wage of 12 or 15 dollars an hour is still not a living wage. And, as for moving from the rust/coal belt to an urban area with available jobs, tell me how, logistically, that's supposed to happen? These are not people who are head hunted and offered relocation benefits. And the jobs? What are they and how many jobs will one person have to have to pay rent, utilities, food, transportation etc? The problem with the, "well, just move" concept is that it's frequently suggested by, white professionals who have no idea what it's like to be poor and have few marketable skills. And you are right, there are very, very few if any quality local jobs for rust belt/coal belt workers and we have done a terrible job retraining and or educating them. They have been left behind.
Historical changes tend to benefit some and burden others, but the devil is in the details. How recoverable are the losses some suffer, and what is the aggregated impact on society? That can be a toughie even from the view of liberty and justice for all, and devastating when maximizing profit is the dominating yardstick.
Daria, you cite certain things that leave me wondering. How did you “witness thousands of women and men lose jobs with decent pay and benefits as offices closed around the US“. What makes you think that there’s an “appalling trend to remove science and critical thinking from the K-12 curriculums” when exactly the opposite is true? There’s a nation-wide movement to strengthen and emphasize STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in public schools. I have witnessed this first hand, I’m a high school teacher. You and Ellen are both right about robots replacing jobs. Robots eliminate some jobs, and create other, higher value jobs for programming and monitoring. The jobs created are fewer in number than the jobs eliminated. You’re also right that there’s been little success in retraining coal and rust belt workers. The main reason is that there hadn’t been a concerted effort to do so. Another reason is that, absent a willingness to move, similar quality jobs may not exist in those same locales. Overall, there are promising trends. Unemployment is historically low, demand for workers is high and the result is that wages and benefits are starting to grow. Also, national support for unions is higher than it’s been in decades.
JR, I worked for a major telecom in mid level management. In 1998 there were literally thousands of Operators employed by the company. With a merger, the company grew even more. Beginning in 2000 Operator and Information Services Technology introduced what was called a whisper, the operator heard the customer's request before the operator greeted the customer. The goal was that the Average Work Time would drop significantly, from 25 - 30 seconds per call to under 12 seconds per call thus boosting productivity and eliminating the need foras many warm bodies to take calls. Dropping the AWT also meant that the Call Wait Time could be significantly reduced thus pushing more customers through the pipeline faster. BEFORE this technological rolled out , in the late 90s, the Telecom executives went to the Communication Workers of America and hammered out a new contract for new hires from about 1997. The Agent Services contract was bare bones featuring low starting pay with a low top pay ceiling. Paid and unpaid leave was decreased. Overtime pay was also reduced. Healthcare benefits were excellent at first but became less so as time went on. What was unknown to the Traditional side of the house was that their contract was going to be phased out either by office closures, forcing the Traditional Contract Operators to move into an Agent Contract Office at REDUCED WAGES or having them apply for other positions with no guarantee of employment. So, the Agent offices opened, the technology was introduced and fine tuned, the Traditional offices were closed. As the technology became more advanced the need for warm bodies dropped. More offices closed until all but one Agent office remained, then it closed. No there are no more Union contract employees in Operator and Information Services. The company used a very low number of exclusively non contract employees to handle calls. It does to this day. So, yes, when I say I watched thousands of people lose their jobs, I mean it. I was involved in breaking the news to employees that their office would be closing on thus and such date. I was on conference calls where hundreds of people were surplussed at a time. I was surplussed as well, as were other members of upper, mid and lower levels of management. On a mass conference call of hundreds.
Science and critical thinking in schools: perhaps you are lucky and live in an area where the school district is not run by a conservative bunch of people who believe that science is the devil's tool. I'm glad. I hope, too, you teach in a district where conservative, faith based crap isn't being dished out in history and social studies classes.
Unemployment is historically low, and there are thousands of jobs out there but many of them are low paying service industry jobs where, in some cases, the starting wage of 12 or 15 dollars an hour is still not a living wage. And, as for moving from the rust/coal belt to an urban area with available jobs, tell me how, logistically, that's supposed to happen? These are not people who are head hunted and offered relocation benefits. And the jobs? What are they and how many jobs will one person have to have to pay rent, utilities, food, transportation etc? The problem with the, "well, just move" concept is that it's frequently suggested by, white professionals who have no idea what it's like to be poor and have few marketable skills. And you are right, there are very, very few if any quality local jobs for rust belt/coal belt workers and we have done a terrible job retraining and or educating them. They have been left behind.
Historical changes tend to benefit some and burden others, but the devil is in the details. How recoverable are the losses some suffer, and what is the aggregated impact on society? That can be a toughie even from the view of liberty and justice for all, and devastating when maximizing profit is the dominating yardstick.
I am loving this discussion.