I worked in the building trade for 20 years. Coming home full of plaster and concrete and my body broke everyday. I worked damn hard. I was one of them sweaty heroes busting my ass trying to get ahead of my co workers. I wanted to be the one who got the portion and the 50 cent an hour pay rise but it never came. I probably wasn't working hard enough.
One day a thing called covid happened and all the skilled migrant workers , alot of them my friends, packed up and went home then went elsewhere. This lead to a huge skills shortage.
Suddenly every recruiter in my town is begging me to come work for them. I can pick what type of work I want to do, company van, training, all expenses paid, expensive courses paid for, bike to work scheme. (All stuff that my boss wouldn't give me out of spite, some of it cost him nothing to set up).
I didn't even give my employer the option to better any offer, just called him and quit. He was at the time deaf to the whole situation and just said good luck and told me I didn't have to give two weeks notice as an attempt to punish me.
He is now paying very junior guys alot more than he was paying me because he can't get anybody.
All you work harder, work for free idiots hoping to someday get a slice of the pie will be replaced by more work hard work free idiots as soon as you ask for money.
If your industry demands good pay for a good day's work and the workforce stand together we can demand a decent living.
There is a conflict on my continent and our political classes are begging the refugees to come here. To exploit them. To tell us they are trying to take our jobs. All the while fixing to exploit them and get them to work cheap. To drive the wages back down. To bleed to succeed.
Don't fall for it. Be sure to let your new Co workers know what the wage is and what benefits they get, and how many hours they need to work and whether they should tell their boss to take a hike.
Fuck the upper classes telling us we must bleed to succeed and giving us less than lower middle class lifestyle for te reward of it.