I have worked at a fortune 500 telecommunications company laying/installing fiber optic wire for almost 15 years now. My union backed trade is specialized, requires a lot of training, and a sizable portion of the population couldn’t perform the job due to the physical requirements. There was a hiring freeze here from 2002-2008, during which time they rolled out new services requiring more employees than currently staffed. Instead of hiring and expanding the existing work group, they created a new lower tier position with less strenuous job responsibilities and lower corresponding pay. Issues have arisen over time due to the company slowly consolidating the higher tier work onto the lower tier department with only minimal raises. As of 2023, my department now does approximately 95% of what the old positions work entailed as well as specialized work they were never forced learn due to it not being in their contract (they added a special appendix to the contract that applies only to us, so we had no recourse). The point of this post is ultimately the biggest issue facing many mid-career millennials…..the pay disparity between the last generation and us. If you were hired here during the pre 2003 days, your maximum pay (for a job not requiring college) is now 56$ an hour after the last contract. My department? We’re currently hard capped at 31$ an hour. My company is a microcosm of what has happened to unions, citizens, and the country as a whole. The corporate overlords have corroded hourly compensation approximately 45% in A SINGLE GENERATION while their profits have skyrocketed. My union leadership also consists entirely of pre 2003 hires, so we’ve agreed to terms on the last 2 contracts without even a threat of striking since theyre mostly close to retirement and don’t care about the younger employees. The last contract passed without even a vote since the union said the deal was surprisingly great (aka great for them, their hourly pay immediately increased from 45$ to 56$ while merely our CAP was raised from 29$ to 31$). The company is aware all they have to do is continue to appease the current oldest employees for a few more years and then all that will be left is the new department capped at a much much lower hourly wage. The union does at least protect me from random unwarranted dismissal, but they unfortunately are not the end all be all answer some on here propose. Drastic action would be required to fix this system, and I don’t see any path to that happening. I’ve essentially lost all hope for this country and are now relegated to the fact that I will work until my eventual passing.