And the idea is if we took away those undocumented workers - those electricians, those plumbers - the person getting the work done would all be worse off.
NPR: Immigrants Tend To Complement, Not Replace American Jobs
Over the years, I've done radio interviews and given speeches where I've been confronted by self-described union members -- electricians, plumbers, carpenters, construction workers -- who complain about illegal immigrants taking jobs and allowing employers to pay lower wages.
The union claims the move would lead to skilled workers, including electricians, pipe-fitters and plumbers, being forced to work on semi-skilled grades and losing up to a third of their pay.
His plumbers (five call-outs a week) got the whole inside back cover of a recent issue.
Certainly some Poles are having real doubts about the EU - perhaps not about the decision to join, but the treatment they have received since, from French fears of job-seeking Polish plumbers to the European Parliament hostility to their government's hardline social conservatism.
What they and the government need to do now is support the small-scale entrepreneurs who want to train legions of wood workers, home builders, machine-operators, and plumbers.
What you'll often see is a group of undocumented immigrants doing scut work - doing sweeping up, carrying heavy stuff, setting up the machinery, working alongside either native-born or documented immigrants who are doing the higher-paid skilled work - carpenters, electricians, plumbers, that sort of thing.
NPR: Immigrants Tend To Complement, Not Replace American Jobs
Yet, almost against Mr May's better judgment, a sketchy profile of Grey's slightly unpleasant character emerges from these pages along with the suggestion that, by setting off over ocean or desert in search of his colourful and often improbable plots, he provided an example of adventurous derring-do that appealed irresistibly to the urban plumbers and mechanics for whom he knew he was writing.
Many people could not get jobs because they struggled to read graphs and interpret documents, while plumbers unable to do the calculations required to install an energy-efficient boiler might lose income, he suggested.
The slower pace means more of Mr. Duncan's employees are doing hands-on work at job sites, instead of acting as general contractors and managing electricians, plumbers and other subcontractors.
But he says a set four-day working week would be "impractical" for businesses like high street convenience stores or plumbers, who are expected to be on hand whatever the day.
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