blue-collar worker

Examples of blue-collar worker in the following topics:

• Industrial Work

  • In common parlance, these people are often referred to as blue-collar workers.
  • Often, blue-collar workers physically build or maintain something .
  • The term "blue collar" refers to the type of clothing often worn by industrial workers.
  • Some blue-collar workers have uniforms embroidered with either the business' name or the individual's name.
  • This clip from CNN shows the development of a new type of blue-collar worker in South Carolina.

• Fair Labor Standards Act

  • In many companies, you'll find exempt and nonexempt workers.
  • Blue collar workers (including manual workers) fall into this category.
  • Jobs that are excluded from coverage under the FLSA include movie theater employees and many agricultural workers.
  • Most railroad workers are also not covered as they are governed by the Railway Labor Act or the Motor Carriers Act.
  • But it also allowed employers to replace striking workers.

• The Post-War Boom

  • By 1960, blue-collar workers had become the biggest buyers of many luxury goods and services.
  • The majority of workers also enjoyed paid vacations and industries catering to leisure activities blossomed.
  • In regards to social welfare, the postwar era saw a considerable improvement in insurance for workers and their dependents against the risks of illness, as private insurance programs like Blue Cross and Blue Shield expanded.
  • In 1959, about two-thirds of factory workers and three-fourths of office workers were provided with supplemental private pension plans.
  • Many blue-collar workers continued to live in poverty, with 30% of those employed in industry.

• Introduction to Labor in America: The Worker's Role

  • Unskilled workers fared poorly in the early U.S. economy, receiving as little as half the pay of skilled craftsmen, artisans, and mechanics.
  • More and more workers hold white-collar office jobs rather than unskilled, blue-collar factory jobs.
  • Meanwhile, many younger, skilled workers have come to see unions as anachronisms that restrict their independence.
  • But unskilled workers in more traditional industries often have encountered difficulties.
  • The 1980s and 1990s saw a growing gap in the wages paid to skilled and unskilled workers.

• The Postwar Economy: 1945-1960

  • During the 1950s, the number of workers providing services grew until it equaled and then surpassed the number who produced goods.
  • And by 1956, a majority of U.S. workers held white-collar rather than blue-collar jobs.

• Industrial Conflict

  • Industrial sociology examines the effects of industrial organization on workers, and the conflicts that can result.
  • Braverman demonstrated several mechanisms of control in both the factory blue collar and clerical white collar labor force.
  • Trade union organizations may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, students, apprentices and/or the unemployed .
  • Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations.
  • In addition to advocating for worker rights, unions may also engage in broader political or social struggle.

• Modern Management

  • The mechanization of the manufacturing process allowed workers to be more productive in less time and factories to operate more efficiently.
  • Frederick Winslow Taylor observed that the use of more advanced machinery could improve efficiency in steel production by requiring workers to make fewer motions in less time.
  • Machine shops, comprised of highly skilled workers and engineers, grew rapidly.
  • The number of unskilled and skilled workers increased as their wage rates grew.
  • Career tracks were offered to skilled blue collar jobs and white collar managers, starting in railroads and expanding into finance, manufacturing, and trade.

• Inequalities of Work

  • This explanation of the pay gap invokes the notion of the pink-collar worker.
  • A "pink-collar worker" is a term for designating the types of jobs in the service industry that are considered to be stereotypically female, such as working as a waitress, nurse, teacher, or secretary.
  • The term attempts to distinguish this type of work from blue-collar and white-collar work.
  • The above graph shows the average earnings of workers by education and sex.

• Job Discrimination

  • This explanation of the pay gap invokes the notion of the pink-collar worker.
  • A pink-collar worker is a term for designating the types of jobs in the service industry that are considered to be stereotypically female, such as working as a waitress, nurse, teacher or secretary.
  • The term attempts to distinguish this type of work from blue-collar and white-collar work.

• The Working Class

  • Those in the working class are commonly employed in low-skilled occupations, including clerical and retail positions and blue collar or manual labor occupations.
  • Low-level, white-collar employees are sometimes included in this class, such as secretaries and call center employees.
  • Class War: Workers battle with the police during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934.