10,000RD Slave Wasnt Enough

Snuffy

Bronze
May 3, 2002
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My young brother in law is a welder. He is currently building the Metro. Now, his work week is, if I understand him correctly, 5...12 hour shifts per week....which is 60 hours. He uses is own equipment. At the beginning of the Metro project he was paid 15,000 a month. They slowly took away a little at a time, claiming new company management, etc. They recently told him to accept 9,000 or walk. Now this guy has no education...it isn't his fault. He has tried his best. He was born into dirt poor and had no father. He is a very good person and I rarely say that about people. He would not be able to run his own business. But he knows how to work hard and he sure needs that Metro job.

So the greedy bastards just are never satisfied. They always want more. They will turn and turn and turn until they take as much as they can. Pay a person a fair wage. He is working 14 meters underground in a very dangerous environment. He is using his own tools. He is willing to work hard.
The government wants the damn Metro but is it necessary to chew people up in order to have it while the fat middle guy continues to try and figure out how to suck more from the bottom. How can the big fat middle guy live with himself.
 

jackieboo

On Vaction without a return ticket!
Mar 18, 2006
362
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My young brother in law is a welder. He is currently building the Metro. Now, his work week is, if I understand him correctly, 5...12 hour shifts per week....which is 60 hours. He uses is own equipment. At the beginning of the Metro project he was paid 15,000 a month. They slowly took away a little at a time, claiming new company management, etc. They recently told him to accept 9,000 or walk. Now this guy has no education...it isn't his fault. He has tried his best. He was born into dirt poor and had no father. He is a very good person and I rarely say that about people. He would not be able to run his own business. But he knows how to work hard and he sure needs that Metro job.

So the greedy bastards just are never satisfied. They always want more. They will turn and turn and turn until they take as much as they can. Pay a person a fair wage. He is working 14 meters underground in a very dangerous environment. He is using his own tools. He is willing to work hard.
The government wants the damn Metro but is it necessary to chew people up in order to have it while the fat middle guy continues to try and figure out how to suck more from the bottom. How can the big fat middle guy live with himself.
There is no 'big fat middle guy' here only the 'giagantic greedy politician'. In a banana republic people actually go IN to politics to get rich instead of as in the United States where they have to be rich to get in to politics.

The DR is a class driven society and even your poor brother-in-law is part of the problem. Here's how it's broken down:
Lowest: Haitan immigrants - they make around $5.00USD per day to dig ditchs
Low: Really poor Dominicanos that have to sell crap on the street.
Mid-low:This is your brother-in-law
Upper class: Ex-pats from other countries
Elite: Dominicans that have 'family money'
Politican's: These are the people with power here and control all of the above.

IF the politicans were to pay the lower classes a living wage then the politian's would loose some of their control. When you give people a chance to improve generally they will get more educated and gain the power to make informed decisions about politics. I see the politican's in the DR like school yard bullies, you know your a lot smarter than they are, but they can beat the sh't out of you.

Talk to your brother in law and see if he has the balls to organize a walk out. There's nothing the government fears more than workers that unite.
 

macocael

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Aug 3, 2004
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www.darkhorseimages.com
Snuffy, I totally sympathize. This is a serious problem here. An enterprising guy -- and there are many here -- cannot get ahead because the wages suck. Even if you have an idea for an independent business (practically the only way to get ahead here), you cant manage to get it off the ground becuase you cant raise any capital. Lots of immigrants to the states manage to do that because they can take a low ranking job but still manage to save a little. Here that is impossible. The woman who runs the school where I had my daughter enrolled only made 6000 pesos monthly!!!!! My own wife, after years of going from one bad job to the next, finally started up her own business and now she is making money. But if it werent for the help of all of us, it might never have happened. Cheap labor is what draws foreign concerns here, so the thinking is that wages need to be low to keep the economy afloat. But in fact that thinking is partly erroneous, and the low wages create other problems that invariably affect the economy negatively (the poor have no buying power: so how can sellers sell even the most basic products?)

But it might interest you to know that New York's famous Sandhogs, who excavated the tunnels for the subways and made it possible to build the pylons for the Brooklyn Bridge, were also paid **** wages and had it all chiselled away from them by the bosses, who were crooks. The States, after all, was once a poor backward developing nation. And not so long ago either.
 

GringoCArlos

Retired Ussername
Jan 9, 2002
1,416
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Sorry, but I have only two thoughts, and I don't think you will like either one of them.

If your brother-in-law hates his job that much, then tell him to go find another one. Otherwise, shut up and keep working. Nobody's bichin is going to change the work situation on the Metro project, or stop the project itself. Just ask Diandino Pena.

And just what the DR needs even more - more dammed unions. Perhaps the unions are the cause, and NOT the effect of bad work situations. Think about it.
 

Don Juan

Living Brain Donor
Dec 5, 2003
856
0
0
Snuffy, is there a way you can help?

I mean, your brother-in-law sounds to be an excellent person to do business with. Perhaps you two can find a way to be mutually beneficial. He can probably set up shop with your $$$ investment. Ever consider that?


GringoCarlos. Although unions can eventually become a worse medicine than the ailment itself, they can, initially at least, be of great benefit to the oppressed... With a union of concerned, honest leaders at the top, it can go far in rectifying many wrongs purposely phased in by the establishment. (politicians, contractors, monopolies, etc.).
Eventually though, as they gain political and economic power, many, if not all, become as negligent, corrupt and abusive as the former oppressors.
Is a fact of life that given the opportunity, in the absence of checks and bounds, many an organization, institution or business will try to keep you down and rob you blind.

Unions are like medications; they can sometime cure an ailment but almost always have dire side effects.
 
G

gary short

Guest
If it wasn't for unions.....in North America it would be unlikely that today we would benefit from safe work regs. pensions. decent wages and overtime pay......not to mention your right to bargain.......
 

A.Hidalgo

Silver
Apr 28, 2006
3,268
98
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If it wasn't for unions.....in North America it would be unlikely that today we would benefit from safe work regs. pensions. decent wages and overtime pay......not to mention your right to bargain.......


Reduce work hours, health plans, paid leave...........
 

dms3611

Bronze
Jan 14, 2002
664
14
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We are looking for some EXCELLENT welders right now....

...we also pay more than what he was "promised" also. PM me with your brothers info...wouldn't mind speaking with him to see if there is a "fit".

Best, Dave
 
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gary short

Guest
Right on Dave....now that's stepping up to the plate..
 

A.Hidalgo

Silver
Apr 28, 2006
3,268
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Snuffy you did the right thing venting for your bro-in-law. You just might have got him a raise thanks to Dave and yourselve of course.
 

jrf

Bronze
Jan 9, 2005
1,020
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If it wasn't for unions.....in North America it would be unlikely that today we would benefit from safe work regs. pensions. decent wages and overtime pay......not to mention your right to bargain.......

Overpriced wages, abuse of power over employer, unions have done good work but now the scales and abuse has tipped to their favour.

Help him out. He has the equipment and the know how. What a great opportunity to start a business.
 
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gary short

Guest
Wow...........Geez is it cocktail hour where your at????????
 

Berzin

Banned
Nov 17, 2004
5,898
550
113
That extra 6,000 pesos that he is being chiselled out of is going into someone elese' pocket. That's how it works in the DR.

I had a talk with a cab driver and I mentioned the Chinatown area as we passed by. He said how industrious and smart the chinese are, whereas dominicans just dedicated themselves to corruption. It seems true judging by the way they run the country.

I hope things work out for your brother-in-law.
 
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gary short

Guest
Edited ... certainly not the way to win friends and influence people gary. Where is the love?
 
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