Yeah unionism has a interesting, to say the least, history and interaction in the states. Though even here it hasn't worked at all, of all places, so I am not sure it is even possible in the states.
I am thinking of two possible solutions:
1. this one is very specific to the US and I am not sure it would work at all in the UK- Its in my long term plans I just need to find a website to host it or raise some money of my own to create a website.
In the states you can see a huge divide between pay east(worst)-west(better but not great)but this doesn't even capture how much those costs relate to cost of living.
I would like to use cost of living markers (there are websites that provide this on a city to city bases) and using the ACRA list and archeologyfieldwork list of companies to create a map of wages for each company. Cause lets face it, if your working more then a week for a organization then, even if the project is located 100's of miles away, you usually come back to their home base for the weekend or whatever so you have to "live"/stay were the home base is, at least for weekends.
I think a real problem is that people are willing to be under cut by a dollar or two because its hard to estimate costs and make the comparison to other jobs. Its really hard to even guess what your wage is suppose to be because there are not enough postings of jobs in each state to really get a grasp of what you should be paid.
This is were I think the map can help by capturing 300, likely the majority of companies, and showing everyone what they should be making, adjusted for local cost of living compared to the national average. People will realize "wow I am getting screwed". Hopefully driving people away from that company so they have to raise wages to attract workers or we demand that we get paid more but with evidence that they are under-paying by the national average.
For this to work though requires massive emailing and bombardment of archaeologists currently working. Also, and most important, contacting every Uni, community college, etc. and making sure every new arch knows what they should be paid.
Do I think this will change things eh, I see some wages going up or at least the outliers getting lots of pressure. It will probably help even out the divides across some states. At most it will help wages a little. Unless everyone decides to not compromise and only work for what the average is (adjusted for local cost of living) then you could see a sort of un-official union effect. That is I think the best case scenario from working within the system.
2. This I think is the best option but one that requires a lot of work.
Make a law for higher wages- while this sounds really hard its because archaeologists tend to be good at digging in the dirt and not much else especially gov.
In the US you could go state by state- easier to get a law passed. Its not really hard you need a to get a senator and rep. on board (except Nebraska that has only one leg.) and get it attached as an amendment to a bigger bill. presto it gets passed along. one or two states do this and the archaeologists in other states will jump in and follow. Same here get like Scotland to pass a bill and all of a sudden everyone else will be on board.
The trick is to present the bill as requiring qualifications(BA to be an archaeologists is the unofficial one anyways) because heritage needs people who know what they are doing. Name the bill something like heritage and tourism development initiative.
Now of course all the developers are going to throw a fit. this is were the hard research comes in an a strategic payment
1. do not set the wage to high just enough to live with a few comforts BUT have it adjusted for inflation. you can also come back in a few years and raise it more
2. in the committee meetings show a video of what we do(work) vs. what construction workers do(stand) and our wages
3. show up to committee meetings in our field gear- say we just came from the field and have to go back after the meeting- chances are it will be true. Make it seem like the construction companies who will be in suits are beating up on the poor working man. it will play well for the press
4. research numbers- this is why the wages need to be reasonable- how much the extra wage will cost lets say a 1 acre survey- extra 5 quid maybe etc.
5. research the waste of construction companies- there are tons- so when they say it will raise costs you can or have your friendly rep./mp say well why dont you do this to cut waste- so they look like idiots complaining about 5 quid when they are wasting 000's.
6. put it in easy to understand terms like this will raise costs .01% if it stays under less then 1% no one will question it. it probably will be under 1% anyways
7. when tackling why it is important shy away from fluffy stuff like it teachs us about the past etc. focus on the money heritage brings in e.g. we gained x amount of money from this discovery BUT if archaeologists had not been there we would have lost out on all that money
Basically- make a bill that says- poor working class people want fair wage against big rich wasteful construction (which will cost pennies) so that we can make millions upon millions of dollars for our nation/state.
it will take some media savy but if it is done right archaeologists will look like Jesus facing down pilot.
I am thinking of two possible solutions:
1. this one is very specific to the US and I am not sure it would work at all in the UK- Its in my long term plans I just need to find a website to host it or raise some money of my own to create a website.
In the states you can see a huge divide between pay east(worst)-west(better but not great)but this doesn't even capture how much those costs relate to cost of living.
I would like to use cost of living markers (there are websites that provide this on a city to city bases) and using the ACRA list and archeologyfieldwork list of companies to create a map of wages for each company. Cause lets face it, if your working more then a week for a organization then, even if the project is located 100's of miles away, you usually come back to their home base for the weekend or whatever so you have to "live"/stay were the home base is, at least for weekends.
I think a real problem is that people are willing to be under cut by a dollar or two because its hard to estimate costs and make the comparison to other jobs. Its really hard to even guess what your wage is suppose to be because there are not enough postings of jobs in each state to really get a grasp of what you should be paid.
This is were I think the map can help by capturing 300, likely the majority of companies, and showing everyone what they should be making, adjusted for local cost of living compared to the national average. People will realize "wow I am getting screwed". Hopefully driving people away from that company so they have to raise wages to attract workers or we demand that we get paid more but with evidence that they are under-paying by the national average.
For this to work though requires massive emailing and bombardment of archaeologists currently working. Also, and most important, contacting every Uni, community college, etc. and making sure every new arch knows what they should be paid.
Do I think this will change things eh, I see some wages going up or at least the outliers getting lots of pressure. It will probably help even out the divides across some states. At most it will help wages a little. Unless everyone decides to not compromise and only work for what the average is (adjusted for local cost of living) then you could see a sort of un-official union effect. That is I think the best case scenario from working within the system.
2. This I think is the best option but one that requires a lot of work.
Make a law for higher wages- while this sounds really hard its because archaeologists tend to be good at digging in the dirt and not much else especially gov.
In the US you could go state by state- easier to get a law passed. Its not really hard you need a to get a senator and rep. on board (except Nebraska that has only one leg.) and get it attached as an amendment to a bigger bill. presto it gets passed along. one or two states do this and the archaeologists in other states will jump in and follow. Same here get like Scotland to pass a bill and all of a sudden everyone else will be on board.
The trick is to present the bill as requiring qualifications(BA to be an archaeologists is the unofficial one anyways) because heritage needs people who know what they are doing. Name the bill something like heritage and tourism development initiative.
Now of course all the developers are going to throw a fit. this is were the hard research comes in an a strategic payment
1. do not set the wage to high just enough to live with a few comforts BUT have it adjusted for inflation. you can also come back in a few years and raise it more
2. in the committee meetings show a video of what we do(work) vs. what construction workers do(stand) and our wages
3. show up to committee meetings in our field gear- say we just came from the field and have to go back after the meeting- chances are it will be true. Make it seem like the construction companies who will be in suits are beating up on the poor working man. it will play well for the press
4. research numbers- this is why the wages need to be reasonable- how much the extra wage will cost lets say a 1 acre survey- extra 5 quid maybe etc.
5. research the waste of construction companies- there are tons- so when they say it will raise costs you can or have your friendly rep./mp say well why dont you do this to cut waste- so they look like idiots complaining about 5 quid when they are wasting 000's.
6. put it in easy to understand terms like this will raise costs .01% if it stays under less then 1% no one will question it. it probably will be under 1% anyways
7. when tackling why it is important shy away from fluffy stuff like it teachs us about the past etc. focus on the money heritage brings in e.g. we gained x amount of money from this discovery BUT if archaeologists had not been there we would have lost out on all that money
Basically- make a bill that says- poor working class people want fair wage against big rich wasteful construction (which will cost pennies) so that we can make millions upon millions of dollars for our nation/state.
it will take some media savy but if it is done right archaeologists will look like Jesus facing down pilot.