Talk:Blue-collar worker

Untitled

This article could use some serious work. I'm not a regular editor here, and I'm not sure how to get one of the "needs editing" banners at the top, but it needs one. The bit about blue-collar football teams strikes me as especially unprofessional.

Add {{cleanup|October 2005}} to the top of the page. Charles Matthews 07:43, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

qualified blue-collar workers

• The thought also struck me upon reading this. I'm not entirely sure, but I thought modern usage of blue-collar can also refer to some professional engineers (especially those not in the engineering design phrase) If that's the case, professional engineers in most countries are usually licensed only after finishing at least a professioanl engineering degree, so saying blue-collars require "lesser requirements for formal academic education" could be biased.--Shion Uzuki 06:54, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't know, I think traditionally blue collar workers were assumed not to have a tertiary education (as they would be expected to be a white collar worker in that instance), however I think it is unfair to say a formal academic education at all as I'm sure nearly all modern day blue collar workers in countries like the United States, the UK, Germany etc would have had a near complete formal academic education. Hauser 07:38, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Blue-collar workers are assumed not to have a tertiary education. However, many jobs appear blue-collar but are white-collar worker: take a mining engineer, five-year degree but works underground in a coal mine ensuring all the tunnels are in the right place and are dug as cheaply as possible. Looks blue-collar, wears overalls and a hardhat, but has a degree (masters? PhD?) and earns $200k pa as a salary.

--Garrie 05:16, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

The article introduction currently says: "Blue-collar work may be skilled or unskilled, and may involve manufacturing, mining, building and construction trades, mechanical work, maintenance, repair and operations maintenance or technical installations." Okay... where do transportation (truck driving, bus driving, ocean-freighter crew, etc), not to mention airplane loading, dock work, and warehouse work fit into the picture?

Another (and trickier) question: where does something like farming fit in? The practitioner may (or may not) be a self-employed owner/operator, but definitely may work manually and get dirty during the work day. Hired farm workers (in fields, on orchards, in vinyards, in stockyards) are examples. But if the worker is self-employed at this work (say, as a market gardener), instead of wages he may work toward profit - e.g., just as also a truck driver who owns his own truck may be self-employed.Joel Russ (talk) 15:48, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

As you can tell from the entries made on June 19 & 20, 2011 (see History of this article), someone attempted to address the classification of farming — but the alteration to the article was "undone" a day later. Hence, the article still leaves a huge gap for the reader. This is a matter that I feel still needs to be addressed.Joel Russ (talk) 00:58, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Colloqualialism?

Isn't blue-collar a slang or colloquial term? If so, why doesn't the article say so? Also, if it's a US-only term, why would a world-wide view be needed? --200.44.7.192 04:39, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

And I must say it's not clear which jobs belong to "blue-collar workers" specially with the further division "skilled" and "unskilled" and the mention of "Skilled blue-collar work often pays as well or better than careers requiring professional post-graduate degrees" thus implying that althought considered below "white collar" they can outdo white collars.

It's not a US only term - It's certainly used widely here in the UK. Poobarb 23:12, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Not in my experience. I only know the term from American media. 85.8.202.193 (talk) 16:50, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

The term is used in the Australian Census.--Garrie 05:13, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

It's an atrocious page, and it's ambiguous if you're unfamiliar with the terms as they're normally used, but I still think you're a bit wide of the mark- often some blue-collar jobs require significant additional on-the-job or vocational training and entail actually learning a craft - these fields often have apprenticeships e.g. electrician, carpenter, plumber, HVAC etc, rather than manufacturing/assembly line/heavy lifting work that you can literally be trained on in less than an hour e.g. GM, longshoremen. Also, some skilled blue-collar fields, esp nuke techs, require Associate Degrees that are vocational and entail a significant, though (allegedly) "non-academic" body of knowledge. Read the OOH. We should be using their definition of this. They lay it out clearly.

salaries

The article includes an opinion: "Blue collar jobs may be represented by trade unions, in which case skilled jobs may pay very well compared to white collar jobs." I am not native english speaker, so tell me if i'm wrong but i think it means: "Workers united in labor unions earn more" If so, this is totally a POV. E7th04sh (talk) 11:25, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Uniform Dress Code

The following is not a sentence. "The term uniform dress codes of industrial workplaces." I'm not sure what the editor had in mind when they included this phrase, so I removed it. If anyone else knows, please fix it. Anthon01 (talk) 10:45, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Re: "Shift of blue-collar jobs from industrialized countries to developing regions"

This section would benefit from some breakdown into 'blue-collar subcategories' and some statistics. Even without subcategories, what proportion of shift (in terms of the blue-collar compoent of the work force) has actually occurred?

Bluecollar work is still there. I say this because it's obvious that every nation is still going to have a lot of blue-collar jobs, if these jobs are defined in terms of manual work, less post-secondary education required, and 'getting dirty' during the workday. Think about: building-maintenance people; the ground-level workers in electrical, water-supply, city-sewer system, trash processing; road building and maintenance; building-construction; automobile maintenance; longshore; commercial and domestic moving; carpentry; railroads; aeronautical construction and maintenance; groundswork (parks, golf courses, schoolyards, etc) and many, many other jobs. These don't go away.

I have no doubt that, as the article now conveys, a proportional shift has occurred. But to what degree has this actually changed the overall picture of employment in the U.S.? Quantify it a little, please.Joel Russ (talk) 23:22, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

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Electoral politics

Besides the Trump election, should not be some references to the blue collar-workers being historically very left-wing, and the main support group of the Communist parties in many countries? Like it is, is a bit of "recentism"---MiguelMadeira (talk) 23:27, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

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jjjkoo 2400:AC40:624:41AC:FC87:B9F6:D452:1895 (talk) 10:14, 24 December 2023 (UTC)