If you’re making $30/hr now, and you could join a trade union and make $65/hr as a journeyman, you’d do it, no question. But if you first have to take a 5 year apprenticeship where you’re only making $15/hr, that’s a hard sell. Eventually it will work out, but you’re making good enough money now and you don’t want to go through 5 years of hardship.
If you’re making $30/hr now, and you could join a trade union and make $65/hr as a journeyman, you’d do it, no question. But if you first have to take a 5 year apprenticeship where you’re only making $15/hr, that’s a hard sell. Eventually it will work out, but you’re making good enough money now and you don’t want to go through 5 years of hardship.
Retooling an entire economy isn’t easy.