What I learned from blue collar workers!

I grew up in a white collar home.  My mom was the daughter of a wealthy doctor.  There were no blue collar uncles or aunts.  I took this type of work for granted for most of my life.  In my family you were to grow up and go to college. I always thought that was the "hardest path".  Today I have two master's degree's, but a whole new appreciation for blue collar professions, the unions, and construction. Follow me over the fold to read observations from a white collar girl marrying into a blue collar world.

Here's some stuff I didn't know about:

1. The pride and inside knowlege that these guys have from having worked in these construction sites is amazing. My husband helped build the aquarium and the rain forest at our local zoo,  he worked at the union pacific train station, he has helped build countless buildings around town.  It is very cool to learn about the insides of all these buildings. A drive around town is always accompanied by stories about this building or that.

2. It takes intelligence. My husband is every bit as smart as any of my graduate friends. But he has a different type of intelligence. He amazes me when he listens to a car and tells me what is wrong, or when he solders a wire on the mother board of our furnace at 3:00 a.m on a 30 below night and gets our heat running again. My father and brother are useless when the car breaks down or when the furnace dies.

3. Office dudes would never tolerate the physical discomfort that these guys go through. I try to picture my white collar sibs living and working in the conditions that my husband does.  It would never happen. My husband has worked in 110 degree heat, and 30 below windchills.  He has done this sometimes day after day and week after week.  He carries huge things up tall ladders.  And yes, it keeps him in pretty good shape.  He does not "bike" or "jog" or go to the "gym".  He gets his work out from his job.

3. He has to keep up a license and pass tests and read books. Just like the guys in college.  He has to renew his license every two years and maintain ceu's just like I do for my counseling license. It costs money to take the tests, the classes and to keep up the continuing education.

4. He doesn't talk like a college grad. He talks like a "construction worker" whatever that means.  Blue collar workers are not dumb, they have their own language. Likely you would know what he does by his cadence, his english, his sentence structure and his loose use of cuss words. Yes, many construction workers cuss. But it doesn't hurt anyone.

5. When all 4 of my kids were toddlers not one of them had a problem with "cussing". Each of them tried it once or twice. I never washed any one's mouth out with soap and none of my kids ever got in trouble at school for cussing. They just knew it was "dad's" language and they weren't to use those words. It didn't make "bad kids" that he cussed in their presence.

6. Blue collar work is dangerous. It's dangerous because of exposure to industrial pollution, the use of big and dangerous tools, falling debris, climbing over piles of stuff, mistakes made by colleagues and contractors, and climbing...lots of climbing.

7. Unions have positives and negatives but when my husband worked non union, he had no disability insurance, no health insurance (as an electrician...for god's sake), the non union shops did not offer life insurance, or retirement funds. They often did not follow safety standards as closely. I learned that the unions keep every one's wages at a standard.  And the union wages are a good 8-10$ above non union. I appreciate the unions and understand that without them, safety standards would be less important, wages would go down and licenses would be unnecessary.

I have learned alot from my blue collar husband and your post just really reminded me of all the things my relationship with my husband has taught me. Now when I see those guys on the side of the interstate holding a flag, or the guys on a sight climbing ladders on a hot day, I think "thank you".

So thanks for all the guys in blue...some of us do realize how hard you work, how you risk your life, safety and health (just like the firemen, and the police officers) and that some of you die in the line of duty.  Thank you...you are the ones who have built america...and the talents and skills you have given live on in your work for hundreds of years. To the builders of the infrastructure--to the ones that Bushco see's as disposable...some of us know better.    

•  thank-you for this diary

  I grew up in a blue-collar family, my dad is a retired coal miner as are all his brothers. My grandpap also retired from the coal mines and had problems with black lung.

  I am now in a white collar job, thanks to my family and their love of education. None of them went to college but that didn't mean they didn't strive to learn more by reading and taking classes when they could. My dad always wanted me to do better than he did, and he gave me every opportunity he could. So thanks for recognizing that we would all be in pretty bad shape if it wasn't for the men and women who break their backs every day to provide things that we tend to take for granted.

  by arkylib on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 05:32:35 AM PDT

•  Blue collar workers

  can be just as stupid as white collar workers and white collar workers can be just as tough if needs be as blue collar workers.

  Neither  is better or worse than the other and the divide is often nowhere near as wide as you paint it. Many people, myself included, have a foot in both camps and these black and white differences usually do not apply.

  Think that this says more about your family relationships than it does about the blue/white divide Either that or you have watched to many Ford, Chevy, Dodge truck commercials.

  by stevej on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 05:46:27 AM PDT

  •  Bullsh*t

    I call shenanigans!

    by cjbeals on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:11:59 AM PDT

•  Great points made - Thanks for all they do

  Plus you have the lovely barter system.  What your husband can't do, a pal of his can and vice versa.

  Being a teacher of English History in a college, for example, doesn't get you many offers to swap a lecture for a plumbing chore...

  by JFinNe on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 05:48:55 AM PDT

•  Many of us

  who are professionals today were able to get that education by labor of our forbears.  But it's all transitory, and there's no guarantee from one generation to the next - or one day to the next.  Never forget where you came from, or where your children are going.  Status changes, basic human decency is the constant you can give your children.

  by marykk on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 05:51:34 AM PDT

•  Many blue collar workers

  are incredible craftsmen/women.  You'd be lucky to own a piece of furniture they've made, or stand in a home they built.

  My parents were teachers, but my grandfather was an electrician.  I spent much of my childhood & adolescence in the Catskill cabin(s) he built, and my prized possession is the bookcase he made that now sits in my apartment.  That, and the wooden stackable file cabinet some other artist made.

  Thanks for this - really, a fine tribute; and a reminder of men like my grandpa, who I miss...

  by snstara on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:02:28 AM PDT

•  Thanks from the workforce

  Seems the working class can get no love on this site.  Workers are not quite the Democratic base any longer according to some.  But we do generate a huge amount of productivity for an even larger profit in peoples' stock portfolios.  Especially considering the betrayal of the worker by America.  Want infrastructure?  Build it yourself.  

  Oh it will interfere with your pursuit of wealth?  Let's churn over the workforce, it's make them grateful for anything we give them; import/export jobs, it's not enough to make a good profit, it needs to increase 40% every year in the corporate circle jerk; break the unions that protect workers from harm because working people don't need all their limbs/organs to work or a livable wage to buy our goods, they can buy the poisonous crap our subsidiaries make in China; ad nauseam.

  by cjbeals on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:10:37 AM PDT

•  I'm a former teacher who has

  left to join the trades.  construction is, for me a 10 times more satisfying way to make a living.  And I've met a lot of very wise people, just as I know a lot of morons with multiple degrees.
      If you want to know why progressives struggle, spend a day at a construction sight, followed by a day listening to NPR.  Two different universes.

  by bugscuffle on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:14:43 AM PDT

  •  construction site, that is

    by bugscuffle on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:17:19 AM PDT

•  I worked in an auto assembly plnt in Doraville Ga

  I am also from a white collar background.  Just out of University with an Anthropology and Philosophy degree, I had few marketable skills to enter into the white collar job market.  I was trying to get into grad. school, but I need work to pay bills.  I had been a competitive athelete for 10 years, so I was able to find a job inside the GM plant in Doraville Ga. as a physical therapy technition.  

  The job was on site so I had the opportunity to enter into the microcosm of the unionized blue collar world.  I will always remember the 2 years that I spent there.  I learned a lot, and they always treated me like a welcome guest.

  There are certainly big problems with a unionized environment, but the people are like all other Americans.  There are good people and bad people, hard workers and lazy people,  nice people and mean people, intelligent people and idiots, open minded people and narrow.

  I of course can never consider myself a blue collar worker, but I will never lose sight of the lessons that they taught me about the honesty and difficulties of physical labour.  And most of all I will always respect them.

  by TheFearsome on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:15:38 AM PDT

•  I used to look down on blue-collar workers, but..

  As a young white-collar adult many years ago, I ignored the "look for the union label" commercials on TV, and looked down on blue-collar workers.

  I regret that now.  Protesting the WTO in Seattle along with all those union workers was an inspiring experience.  Now, I try to buy union products whenever I can, but it's much harder than it used to be.

  I've learned that all workers, blue and white-collar alike, have been shafted by the political and corporate rulers of this country.  Our economic interests are more similar than most people realize.

  Great diary.  Thanks for writing it.

  by Bob B on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:34:59 AM PDT

•  Thanks for the Diary

  I was the first in my family to go to college.  My mother was the only one in her family to finish high school.  I come from farmers and tradespeople.  In one of my previous lives, my husband and I ran a construction company.  When I came on the job, the guys would stop the swearing but after about 10 minutes they would forget I was there and go back to language as usual.  
  Union busting has really hurt the construction trades, especially the loss of benefits.
  Now I work in health care in a multicultural environment.  People are people, some smart, some dumb, some focused, some easily distracted.

  by arlene on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:36:31 AM PDT

•  I was shocked by liberal brothers response

  My brother works in an office and he is so threatened by the fact that my husband can lift a motor with his bare hands, and can fix anything that they cannot hardly speak with each other. He makes a lot of money but feels inadequate. He has shared this with me in quiet moments.  I never said in my diary that one was better than the other. I never said it was black and white.  I told what i had observed.  Construction workers do talk differently. The only black and white statement really was that they cuss. Mine does. Some don't. I was shocked to find that it won't kill ya!! I grew up with doctor grandpa and he thought cussing was the worst sin!! Some white collar folks cuss but you probably would be careful about dropping an f bomb in the office. It's different on a job site. I've been there.

  by wavpeac on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 06:56:25 AM PDT

•  ALL Workers Deserve Respect and Living Wage

  I'd like to add:

  The people who clean the office at night are just as deserving of respect as is the CEO.  And they're just as entitled to a living wage as is the CEO.

  by Bob B on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 08:22:16 AM PDT

•  A new book all of you might enjoy:

  "Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" by Joe Bageant

  by Bob B on Fri Aug 03, 2007 at 08:25:45 AM PDT