Back in the 70’s my sister and her boyfriend had just come off the Alaskan Pipeline as pipefitter welders and the new boom was nuke plants. I was about to graduate from HS so I checked in to it and decided to go to welding school that in those days was nationally known for turning out “slick” pipe welders. After graduating I went to Local Union of Plumbers & Steamfitters and went right to work. At that time in June of 1979 our base wage was $16.64/hr..
As much as I hated the union the additional level of training that we received was excellent if you applied yourself. Unfortunately not everyone did because afterall it was a union and all you had to really have to go to work was warm blood flowing through your veins. There in lay the problem, those with demonstrable skills making the same as those who couldn’t care less because the money was the same.
To answer your question about wages when I left the union in the 90’s we were up to $34/hour and now they are in the mid $40’s...
That's interesting. It looks like welder's pay might have kept pace with inflation, but it's hard to understand how a shortage of 500,000 could have developed. Often these days, the stories about shortages in skilled jobs are nothing but a justification to bring in more cheaper foreign workers.
Unions have served some good purposes in the past, but the ones I've dealt with, one of their main activities these days seemed to be giving the slackers and problem employees something to hide behind.