Moog workers demand unionization

[LoboLives]

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2022/06/02/moog-music-workers-organize-to-synthesize-unions/?fbclid=IwAR1zJirakiknm7pEvx-Aklw7UhDBykWrp77by4ZiQLHAHXrN-E7trnyVCKY


"'Every single instrument I pass through my station sells for more than my monthly take home wages, notes Jack Dahnke, who handles final calibration on the Matriarch line. 'I’m expected to go through 11 daily.'"


^Someone please teach this guy some basic economics. He's confusing profit margin with sales price. Short term thinking will eventually lead to more layoffs or even bankruptcy.

Moog has lost 25% revenue the last two years and had to lay off people. Demanding higher wages is a cost that will be paid with increased prices on their products. Since they already are a premium brand this will lose them customers. And they are already in a bad spot. Horrible timing.

[chysn]

There’s no bad time to unionize. Anybody who spends 40 per week of their life working for an employer is entitled to a local living wage regardless of their role in the business.

[LoboLives]

There’s no bad time to unionize. Anybody who spends 40 per week of their life working for an employer is entitled to a local living wage regardless of their role in the business.

The problem with this is everyone's needs are different so what would be a definitive living wage? How would it be measured? It would be dependent on industry and also location of the work. Is it the employer's responsibility to ensure their workers are able to pay their apartment's rent or eat? Well, what happens if an employee is living beyond their means? It's too difficult to measure.

It's currently $15.50/hr where I live and barely anyone can afford rent in the city so many live outside the city and travel in to work as there's more job opportunities. If the minimum wage were say $25.00/hr then most businesses wouldn't be able to sustain themselves and many would either move to a different location or close up all together, cut hours or lay off staff. In fact...this happened already. Our minimum wage was $12.50 prior and soon as it went up to $15.50, there were mass layoffs. From a personal story, when I started my old job I was at $15.50/hr plus bonus (Which was substantially higher than the $12.50 so there was major incentive for people to work) then through years of working with the company I moved up into different departments and I was making $18/hr plus bonus. Then the edict came in where the minimum wage was officially $15.50 so now the incentive for people to work at the job became less (since they could get the same amount of money at any job now guaranteed) and all the older employees like myself had favored nations in our contracts so because our departments were in a higher category we all went over $20-25/hr which was fantastic.....until the company decided to close multiple departments and eventually close the entire office down all together and operate in a different part of the country where the minimum wage was less.

A higher minimum wage sounds fantastic but it seems everyone demanding it are under the assumption they will be employed full time.

[chysn]

Living wage is determined by a formula that takes average prices of housing, food, transportation, utilities, etc., into account in a specific geographic area. For Asheville it’s $17.70. Determining that isn’t the “problem” at all.

[LoboLives]

Living wage is determined by a formula that takes average prices of housing, food, transportation, utilities, etc., into account in a specific geographic area. For Asheville it’s $17.70. Determining that isn’t the “problem” at all.

That's under the assumption that no on travels into Ashville to work and everyone lives in the surrounding area.

Sales price and profit margin are two different things. If Moog has already laid people off and are down 25% in revenue, then they aren't going to be able to afford to raise their worker's wages without seriously impacting their business. Let's say hypothetically they do, what will that result in? More cuts to the staff to offset the cost.

Let's just say hypothetically Mike Adams gives up his shares to the employees and Moog becomes 100% employee owned. It's not going to turn out the way they want.

[chysn]

That's under the assumption that no on travels into Ashville to work and everyone lives in the surrounding area.

Living wage calculations make no assumptions about the locations of employees or cost of travel. It's based on local cost of living. If you can save money by commuting, good for you. If commuting is a high expense, tough luck. But that doesn't diminish the calculation as a baseline.

If Moog has already laid people off and are down 25% in revenue, then they aren't going to be able to afford to raise their worker's wages without seriously impacting their business. Let's say hypothetically they do, what will that result in? More cuts to the staff to offset the cost.

These are realities of the business cycle. Unions don't go away in recessions nor lose their ability to bargain.

The trade-offs you mention aren’t inevitable, but they’re both possible and acceptable. Moog isn’t my favorite synth company. Heck, it’s not even my favorite synth company in Ashville. But I wish its workers well in their uprising.

[LoboLives]

That's under the assumption that no on travels into Ashville to work and everyone lives in the surrounding area.

Living wage calculations make no assumptions about the locations of employees or cost of travel. It's based on local cost of living. If you can save money by commuting, good for you. If commuting is a high expense, tough luck. But that doesn't diminish the calculation as a baseline.

If Moog has already laid people off and are down 25% in revenue, then they aren't going to be able to afford to raise their worker's wages without seriously impacting their business. Let's say hypothetically they do, what will that result in? More cuts to the staff to offset the cost.

These are realities of the business cycle. Unions don't go away in recessions nor lose their ability to bargain.

The trade-offs you mention aren’t inevitable, but they’re both possible and acceptable. Moog isn’t my favorite synth company. Heck, it’s not even my favorite synth company in Ashville. But I wish its workers well in their uprising.

I hope they get what they want but I also hope they all stay employed.

[Sacred Synthesis]

I almost asked my wife to write this post.

Unions can at times be useful I suppose, but they can also be like a pack of rats.  I've had the displeasure of observing my wife's teacher's union for a couple of decades.  They take your dues and promote politics and politicians that you may strongly oppose.  If you're not a member of the faithful, they ignore or harass you.  And when you finally need them, they may fail to defend your interests, due to a pecking order - in my wife's case, because the union rep. was an underling of a lousy principal that my wife was having problems with.  She made several complaints to the union, which did nothing.  When a meeting was finally arranged, my wife asked me to come to defend her, which I happily did.  The union rep was utterly useless and threatened to throw me out. 

Afterwards, my wife did her own research and finally figured out how to withdraw from the union, and they've been rude to her ever since.  It turned out to be quite the caste system.   

If I had to use one word to describe the teacher's union, it would be "bully."  And I have a perfect loathing for bullies. 

[LoboLives]

I almost asked my wife to write this post.

Unions can at times be useful I suppose, but they can also be like a pack of rats.  I've had the displeasure of observing my wife's teacher's union for a couple of decades.  They take your dues and promote politics and politicians that you may strongly oppose.  If you're not a member of the faithful, they ignore or harass you.  And when you finally need them, they may fail to defend your interests, due to a pecking order - in my wife's case, because the union rep. was an underling of a lousy principal that my wife was having problems with.  She made several complaints to the union, which did nothing.  When a meeting was finally arranged, my wife asked me to come to defend her, which I happily did.  The union rep was utterly useless and threatened to throw me out. 

Afterwards, my wife did her own research and finally figured out how to withdraw from the union, and they've been rude to her ever since.  It turned out to be quite the caste system.   

If I had to use one word to describe the teacher's union, it would be "bully."  And I have a perfect loathing for bullies.

Most of my family were part of grocery clerk unions and whenever there were complaints from one of my uncles about a situation, the union rep would flatly tell them "I'm not here to help you, I'm here to ensure the company isn't affected by you negatively."