I work in manufacturing. Our company was bought out last year by a conglomerate that is expanding us and trying to grow. You should know right now it is very hard to find skilled machinists or people that have the capacity and desire to work in machining.
We are currently hiring people that are green (meaning no experience) to operate machinery for 19/hr and 20/hr after 90 days. Now to us old timers we see the floor rising but the ceiling staying the same which is leading to some anger and animosity as we are the one training these people with the skills we have honed over the last 20 – 30 years.
Most new people are pretty open about discussing wages so we know for sure what they are being paid. Now today, I'm negotiating going to the second shift (which is a new shift for us) as a shift leader. I asked for 30 / hr and they came back with 29 / hr. I started to complain about how a dollar is only a few thousand dollars a year in wages and that what they are hiring in these new guys at is kind of an insult to us as seasoned machinists.
He told me that – “You guys out on the floor discussing your wages is going to come to an end real fucking fast”
I immediately reminded him that under federal law and the NLRB act it is in fact legal for us to discuss wages. That was the end of that.
Don't let them hold you down!
TL;DR Manager tried to tell me we can't discuss wages. I quickly proved him wrong.