AJ300Mag, you're treading awful close to the edge here if you're saying what I think you're saying.

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Ever have an electrician work for you? What about a plummer or a carpenter? Expensive work ain't it.


Your "training" as being the same as a mechanical engineer doesn't really qualify you for very much, if anything, unless you have real world experience behind it and a demand for your product.
You may not like it, but electricians, plumbers, and other trade work are as skilled, and maybe more so than about 90 percent of the jobs in any market and yet, semi-skilled laborers in auto factories can make as much or more than us just because of their unions and the demand for their product.

I've had buddies with great college educations, but in fields with little demand, whine to me that I was overpaid because I was an electrician without a college diploma? The fact is, while these guys were off goofing off at college at their parents' expense (for the most part), I was working my ass off and learning a skill which I will never perfect due to the changing nature of my trade. Such is the world I choose, and continue to live in with few complaints. No union is going to change that, even though I've been on both sides of that fence and seen the good and bad of both sides of the union fraternity. I've been through strikes, work slowdowns, and other union frivolity- never again. With all the games the unions play these days just to survive and justify their existence, it is a wonder they haven't been outlawed by the RICO act.

As Stick so eloquently has stated several times, if you're unhappy with your lot, it really isn't all that hard to get some training and gain some skills in a field more to your liking and with a demand that will take care of your financial problems in time. Whining about needing this or that is just another excuse used by those who aren't willing to sacrifice in the short term to gain some happiness in the long term. I know what I'm talking about- 2 of my 3 kids were born while I was an apprentice electrician and things were damned tight. But now I can hardly remember what was so bad about those days.
Looks like you're in for a long haul if you're already unhappy with the way things are going now. Only you can change that perspective- your union won't do diddly to raise your happiness quotient.- Sheister

Never underestimate your ability to overestimate your ability.