Utopian tech?

[Laura Kelber]

I worked as a union electrician in NYC from 1981 to 1999, and even during
that period I saw various "improvements" that downgraded the level of skill
(manufacture and maintenance of temporary light - a big boondoggle for
electricians - going from soldering, to splicing to crimp-on, for example).
I mostly worked new construction, followed by large-scale renovation jobs
and public works jobs, and while much of it hasn't changed, I can imagine a
move throughout the industry to make the work less skilled, via pre-fabbed
parts. One huge change is the advent of wireless tech. Computer cables were
just getting to be a thing, and getting on the phone crew was also a sweet
deal: not only was the work lighter, but if you located a live riser wire,
you could clip your handset on - free long distance for all! That's all
gone. It's no surprise that with the move to lessen the skills that
non-union electrical work is on the rise in a solid union town like NYC.
The construction unions have always been politically conservative - from
Nixon to Reagan to Trump - precisely because they considered themselves
skilled "labor aristocrats," ergo irreplaceable. Now they're getting fucked
in the ass (in construction parlance), but they're taking it like meek
little lambs. The old, effective hit-the-scab-with-a-lead-pipe routine -
absolutely crucial to the building of a strong labor movement in the past,
alas - has fallen out of favor in a society that has such harsh prison
terms, not to mention YouTube footage.

But depending where your son lives, becoming a licensed, self-employed
electrician is an awesome career choice that's still got a great future.

LK

PS - In my day, the construction shanties were wall-papered with explicit
porn and graffiti, and guys would read aloud from porn magazines when women
were around. Some of my present-day electrician sisters tell me that
there's less paper porn. Instead, the guys play porn movies on their mobile
devices to harass their female co-workers. Progress?

On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 11:24 AM, jody boy <jodys.gone2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> My son's an EE. He is seriously considering getting his electrician's
> license
>
>
>  On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 10:20 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > There's a bit of literature about how the robots vs computers thing
> > can also be seen as manual vs mental labour being automated. That also
> > might key into who gets most alarmed - blue collar Luddites were
> > scoffed at by the leisured class who couldn't imagine wanting to do
> > those jobs anyway, but when even journalism is being done by
> > smartypants computers, you get media organisations going into a spin
> > about the death of civilisation.
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 1:31 AM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> Is there a distinction between robots and computers in this discussion?
> For
> >> example, the printing industry has been largely marginalized by
> computers.
> >> Even though large-scale printing of newspapers, magazines, and books (
> Mark,
> >> can you weigh in on this?) may still be performed in robotized printing
> >> plants, the products themselves are being replaced by online versions.
> And
> >> the evil twin of computerization is globalization. Robots replacing
> humans
> >> has a quaint, Wellsian sound, in the face of such a vast cultural shift.
> >>
> >> At the other extreme, it's hard to imagine the construction industry
> being
> >> robotized or computerized. Total Recall (1990) has a joke about this,
> and it
> >> still holds. Sure, you can prefab modules in a robotized factory, then
> stack
> >> and connect them on site. But the economics of transporting all of that
> >> weight can't compete with mixing and pouring concrete on site. Because
> if
> >> you want to build high ( as they apparently do), you need concrete.
> Plumbing
> >> and electrical, I'll concede could be usurped by new technologies that
> >> render the skilled trades obsolete. But laborers can stare any robot
> down.
> >>
> >> Laura
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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