Most “unskilled labor” is heavily skill dependant. You wouldn’t want a chef, builder or plumber who didn’t know what they were doing. And for production: machinists, mechanics and foremen make or break profit with their skills.
So what’s a better name for these jobs?
You’ve never worked blue collar jobs have you? Just because we don’t have a degree doesn’t mean we are uneducated.
That is precisely the point.
The term “Unskilled labor” is derogatory, misleading, and commonly used to suppress wages. My question is if there’s something better we can call it to reclaim the power of the word, and break the cycle of abuse?
Yeah I’m confident I could learn to run a cash register pretty dang well in less than a month. No way I’m learning plumbing that quick. Also, I’m confident I could teach myself to run a cash register. If I tried to teach myself plumbing (like, no books, internet, etc) I’d be at pretty high risk of a literal shotshow