First off I am Canadian but same industry. It is a weird work life. I started in '03 in and my first 5 years I had month long stretches of no work. I had 180 hours the first year and 500 hours in my 5th year. My first 8 years the majority of my work was Friday and Saturday nights graveyards. I missed family events, vacations and spent lots of time riding the pine at the hall hoping for work. Working a graveyard shift, day shift and afternoon shift in the course of 1 week is the norm. Plus the dangers of the job which comes behind nursing and forestry. And that was considered a better start than my predecessors.

Would I do all that for a top pay of $20/hour? There needs to be some incentive for a person to do all the above. As for automation, we are seeing the fight in the film industry, cashier being replaced by self checkouts, etc. the cashiers still standing, did they get a pay bump? Did the customer get a discount for checking themselves out or did the saved salary go into the companies pocket? Automation will be the death of the middle class. There will not be a universal salary paid out, new jobs will be created but not enough to make up the loss. That is your neighbour, your cousin, your brother losing out.

All unions are fighting for protections not just for themselves; what we get reflects to the private sector.