cross-posted from: https://yiffit.net/post/1029567

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2936916

Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000 a year package with a mixture of anger and admiration::Some tech workers questioned whether UPS drivers deserved high pay — others jumped in to note the importance of the jobs and harsh working conditions.

  • Everybody’s salary needs to increase and the only way we can achieve this is through unions. There isn’t one single employer that I’ve met out there in the IT field that was ever willing to increase my salary beyond 2%. It’s always “too much”. Meanwhile my cost of living has nearly doubled.

    • Actually, I did do it. I was in IT for 20 years, 10 of it doing tech support. Now I deliver mail. Best decision of my life. And it is surprisingly easy for someone with a tech background. Sure, there’s a lot of physical labour involved. And winters suck with the massive increase in Christmas parcels and mail on top of the shitty weather. But summers are light and I’m outdoors most of the day.

      EDIT: for clarity

      The sad part is that I had to leave a 20 year IT career to find this job which will eventually lead to a 6 figure salary. By the time I left IT, my wage had stagnanted for a decade and I couldn’t see any path to 6 figures. It’s not that delivery drivers don’t deserve that kind of salary…we do for the work during the crunch times. It’s that IT workers deserve a union that will back them up and get them that salary.

      If I’m up at 2am fixing a crashed server before the 6am reports are generated, and I still put in a full day the next day to do the post-mortem analysis, I deserve more than some encouraging words and a half day at some point in the future that I’ll never have the chance to take.

        • It’s really not, as evident by the statement immediately after that you left out.

          …we do for the work during the crunch times.

          The sad part was that I wasted at least 10 years of my life trying to achieve something that I eventually had to accept was never going to happen. I think I deserved a 6 figure salary for the work I was doing in IT. Other people had achieved it doing the same work. But after the last layoff and not being able to find something that wasn’t pure tech support for less money that I had been making before, I had to make a difficult decision. And that decision is going to finally lead to the salary I want.

            • Again, it’s really not.

              It’s that IT workers deserve a union that will back them up and get them that salary.

              Everyone deserves the same chance for reward for doing the same work. Everyone.

                • Again…

                  The sad part was that I wasted at least 10 years of my life trying to achieve something that I eventually had to accept was never going to happen.

                  I had to leave a 20 year IT career in order to get what I was looking for. Delivery drivers deserve every last cent they fought for. It’s just a shame that IT works don’t have someone fighting for them collectively.

  • We all do better when we all do better.

    As someone who has only worked freight in an air-conditioned warehouse, moving boxes is not easy work and not many people will be able to do it their whole careers. I’m personally glad I argue with computers for my job now and I have much respect for those lifting things in the elements.

  • So I am in a “Right to Work” State and I have thought about this for a minute now… Given the support is there, how hard is it to start a union in a particular field/industry in a city? I have been in Tech and IT for the last +10 years and I while I havent met too many Union Deniers, no one seems to know why there is no Tech Unions out here. Is there a place I could reach out for guidance?