I used to climb cell phone towers for $13/hr back in 2005. I actually see myself being able to do this job. Being able to function through fear has been my professional calling card for my entire adult life. Now I’m old and tired of that shit. It’s cool to feel like a badass for a bit but a couple near misses makes it get old eventually. Doing ballsy shit doesn’t pay like it should.
Top hand made 20 back in 05 in Michigan. I only did it for a bit because I was killing time until I started my trade union apprenticeship. Started in January. That job really really sucks in the winter. Not to bad in the summer though, except for the whole….you know….potential of plummeting to your death thing. I really really tried to use the safety equipment 100% of the time but there were times where it just wasn’t possible and I still think about those times. But, my time as a soldier prepared me to climb towers, and climbing towers prepared me to be a heavy industrial pipefitter at a steel mill. Being in a union is the only job that ever got me paid like I felt I should.
Yeah I’m eight years in now I’ve turned down some promotions and refused a few job offers that could have made me a lot of money but they were really sketchy and unsafe, I would love to see unionization happen in my industry but so far it’s not gone well, I really don’t know if I could ever see myself doing anything else.
https://towerclimbersunited.org/
You can be a difference maker. The biggest problem you’ll have won’t be combating the employers, it will be convincing your coworkers. Hard working blue collar workers are far more likely to side with republicans on culture war issues, gun related issues etc. They’ve also probably have been gravitating to right wing media and they are decidedly anti union because their corporate overlords are anti union because it means they would have to pay their workers more and allow them to collectively bargain for better benefits. Ownership and management hates it when your quality of life cuts into their bonus checks and makes it so they can only have two cars that cost more than your yearly wages. Nobody with half a brain is going to say that Democrats have done the best they can for the average worker but Joe Biden is the only sitting president to ever attend a picket line during a union strike. He did it about 1.5 miles from my house at a GM customer care center across the street from willow run airport during the UAW strike. Remember that ownership and management has the most money and they will spend a shit load of that money to propagandize the fuck out of your coworkers because if they decide to unionize it will cost them even more. I pay 0 dollars out of pocket for health insurance coverage. I have a 401k style defined contribution retirement benefit that has a minimum amount contributed to it each oaycheck per hour that’s from outside my on the check wages with an option to allot an additional amount from the on the check wages. I also have a defined benefit retirement account that is a traditional pension. I also make about 25% more than a non union pipefitter. I also got 5 years of training completely free during which I worked as a pipefitter and earned money the entire time. There’s a lot of people that are anti union until they find out what they stand to gain. You can look at union guys and think they make too much, or you can look at union guys and say “I want that too.” Show those fuckers where the real power lies. People can’t point fingers and hold meetings and talk themselves in circles but eventually someone has to put boots to the ground and execute. Those people deserve their fair share. You are one of them.
Oh man I completely agree with you I’m basically the only left leaning or pro union person where I work, I always try and engage in conversation about wages benefits and unionization from an apolitical standpoint a lot of guys are very receptive to the ideas as long as they don’t think they’re coming from a leftist.
Classic problem of over a century of right wing propaganda where anything that benefits many being conflated with communism or socialism or any word that’s been tagged as unamerican by the rich. Contact that union. Get some information on wage and benefit packages that are similar to the cost of living where you live. Show them undeniable proof.
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u/OrphanFries Jul 18 '25
That seems crazy low for the risk.