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Workers at Chile's ALMA Telescope Strike Over Working Conditions

Posted by timothy on from the but-stars-are-free dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from Deutsche Welle: "'Employees at the world's largest radio telescope have gone on strike after failing to reach agreement over pay and conditions. Workers say they are not sufficiently compensated for isolation and high altitude.' The strike started on Thursday, and the telescope is currently not operating. Although the project's budget is $1.1 billion, an ALMA technician earns less than $2,000 per month. How does this compare with people working at observatories in the U.S., Japan, or the European Union?"

12 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Apples to Apples. by sjwt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These guys are earning $2,000 p/m more than ALMA workers who are working in US, Japan or the EU.

    Lets get a comparison of wages earned by locals doing similar skilled jobs.

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    1. Re: Apples to Apples. by causality · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Go find work elsewhere then.

      Striking just shows at they can't. Otherwise they already would have.

      The flip side is that without unions and the real threat of losses caused by strikes, the next employer in that line of work will merely do the exact same thing. Consider the way that the major cell networks all charge similar rates (including overcharging in many cases for texting) when they are ostensibly competing with each other for customers. If it's not actual collusion it's similar in effect because it's based on a "market rate" which is merely a look at what everyone else is doing.

      Now maybe other employers should do the same thing, I'm not giving an opinion there (for those reactive types who can't plainly see that I didn't), just that such an effect is something to consider.

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    2. Re: Apples to Apples. by ThreeKelvin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No - striking shows the employer that the employees will not work under the terms set forth, but wouldn't mind doing the work if they could come to terms. It's a lighter version of finding a new job - and a rather more appropriate response in many cases.

      Now, the employer can respond in a number of ways. Just to name a few; She can fire the employees if she thinks that the pay is adequete to attract new employees, she can wait the employees out, or she can enter negotiations. You know - just like any other free market where people are negotiating prices and conditions.

      (On that note: I really don't get why some Americans are so much in favor of a free market when it concerns goods, but very much against it when it's labor.)

    3. Re: Apples to Apples. by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think in US it is not the unions that can help. These are incompetent, corrupt bureaucrats that are charge with tasks that overwhelm them.

      Some unions, yes. One I was in at one job was in bed with management and worse than useless, but most are worth far more than the union dues.

      Unless your union sucks the union leaders are democratically elected by the union members, and you vote on everything they do, including whether to accept a contract, whether to strike, etc.

      If your union sucks it's your own fault.

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  2. Minimum wage technician? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So would you get minimum wage technicians to operate a state-of-the-art gear like are these telescopes?

    What could go wrong?

  3. Re:Premium not enough? by rastos1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    hey're trying to take advantage and cheat their employer, because they're in a remote area -- making them harder to fire and replace;

    How is that cheating? I thought that is a simple demand and supply rule.

  4. Cost of living under $1000 a month by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 4, Informative

    The cost of living in Chile for american expats is under $1000 a month.

    The average annual income is $11,039.

    If the observatory workers are making $2000 a month, then they seem to be making the equivalent of about $90,000 in the U.S. for local goods and services- tho very little in terms of world products (like imported automobiles and air conditioners).

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  5. Re:Premium not enough? by SynFlood · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dude, i invite you to work in ALMA for a month, a 16,000 ft, with temps as low as 14 F , and winds of 32m/s for $12.50 per our on 12 hour shift with out bathroom or a descent place to eat.... then we can talk

  6. Re:My 3 least favorite things in one sentence by SynFlood · · Score: 5, Informative

    First of all, I work for ALMA and I'm part of the workers union , but i'm speaking for myself.

    the budget is 1.5 billion already spent on the project , each antenna with all its equipment cost US$10 million, and there are 64 of them,and then you have to add all the building, devices, software licenses, computers, network equipment and other things that the project needs, so you can go easily to one billion only on that , which is already in place.

    about two, yes english site, agree use , instead of . for thousand separator ;)

    three, 2,000 USD is the average, some workers make less than 1,000 USD per month, working 12 hours a day on 8 days working, 6 days off shift, the average is 2,000 USD and top paid workers are getting nearly 6,000 USD per month.

    Another important point, we are on strike NOT for the money, we are on strike because the company that have our contracts is changing condition and removing some benefits , maybe U.S. laws permit that, but ALMA is located in Chile, and laws here are different, also ALMA is abusing of its special diplomatic condition to disallow inspection by the agency in charge of verify working conditions (Inspeccion del Trabajo de Chile).

    Also to clarify, most of the work is performed at 5,000msn (16,000 ft over sea level), with tempetures as low as -10 celcius (14 fahrenheit) with relative humidity of 5% and winds of 10 m/s (32feet/s).

  7. To answer your question by dataspel · · Score: 5, Informative
    McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas. Comparable isolation, but only about 7000 ft altitude.
    Techician jobs range from about $20,000 to $35,000

    For example:
    https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/hr/jobs/nlogon/120716015331

    1. Re:To answer your question by SynFlood · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you see the add, they work form 8 to 5 MonFri, we work Mon to Mon 12hours a day, except first day wich is from 11 to 8 and last day wich is 8 to 3, wich is 88 hours in a week, then 6 das off, so is 44 hours a week in average? and we can't go back to our houses every night while working, because we are 1200km away from home, some even more, is a 2 hour bus trip to the nearest airport, and then 2 hous of fligh, or 24 hours in bus. so is not comparable with McDoald Observatory!
      Also elevation , accoring to thir page is only 2000mts, our residence is a 2960 and the work area at 5000mts.

  8. Re:My 3 least favorite things in one sentence by SynFlood · · Score: 5, Informative

    jobs are from mechanical workers, electric engineers, antenna operator, array operators, warehouse operators , software programmers, system administrator, dba, network eng.

    about base salary, we are around 10% or 20% better paid than the same job at a santiago , for example

    I'm a Chilean citizen, 80% of the workers are Chilean citizen and the rest are from US, Europe or Asia (Japan mainly)

    but i would like to say that the strike is not mainly for the salary, also for the working conditions.