m.a.n rules:
switchlogic:
Winseer:
Isn’t the main argument about having a “trade” always been about shortage of labour in certain areas?
Younger people have not been training up since the 90’s, with Blair shifting the course of this country so that all younger shortages of labour - got replaced by mainly Eastern European talent coming in.
I best let my qualified mechanic brother know he’s Polish now
you best leave it to your mom and dad luke, it may come as a shock that he’s adopted after all these years… 
Ah yes good point. I did always wonder why he spoke another language to rest of us…he told us it was Welsh
milodon:
I still fail to see why driving should be paid better than skilled labor.
It’s more like truck driving is on the low side for the responsibility.
However skilled jobs in manufacturing have long been under valued and under paid here.That’s just to compensate for the sheer bleedin grinding prison like existence of an ‘inside’ job let alone the skill levels.
So you’ve got it wrong truck driving could be better paid while skilled or even repetitive production job wage rates, especially in whatever industry we’ve got left, are a joke.
On that note no one should have/have had to spend 40 or more hours per week in a factory or down a mine etc to make a living when 3 days 24 hours per week of that is more than enough.
So what did they do they transferred the jobs to sweatshop/communist economies many with suicide netting around their roofs. 
So just the wage/hours skill level equation isn’t everything.There’s a lot more involved in it than just skills.
I’d say the skills involved in many engineering disciplines for example were just different to many truck driving roles in that regard not necessarily a lot more.
However it was more the compensation for the prison like existence during the working day by comparison that wasn’t there.Ironically even the unions missed that point in their tinkering round the edges asking for a 37 hour 5 day week.When what was needed was/is enough workers to provide a 2-3 day week rota for a living wage each.
Just read all of this interesting post Rob, we both been in the saddle similar time, 33 years so I see where you’re coming from regarding pay and conditions but at the end I think it’s not healthy to compare like for like with other professions. Over that time most others have also been subject to similar lowest common denominator and cheapest wins kind of bollox but at the end of it at least we still have that thing of being alone, to a greater or lesser extent, making our own decisions on when to stop for a brew or whatever. OK it’s probably more hours as such but many are spent, in my case walking my dog (!) or relaxing and watching u tube. For me at least, while not perfect I’ll try and hack it for another 8 years rather than seek perfection. Make the most of it.
