
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 10, 1991                   TAG: 9104100415
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CONTRACTOR'S OFFER: SUBSTANDARD WAGE

ELWYN CLIFTON of G.J. Hopkins (letter, April 5) offers an example of what is wrong with labor today.

I am a skilled craftsman, a pipefitter and welder with 18 years' experience. I have had the pleasure of working with large nationwide contractors such as Brown & Root, Fluor-Daniel, etc., so I know what a skilled craft should pay.

Several years ago G.J. Hopkins was the mechanical contractor on the new YMCA in Martinsville. It ran an ad in the local paper for pipefitters, offering top wages, top benefits, etc.

On replying to this ad, I was told the wage was only $8 an hour. This is substandard in anybody's book. Companies like Hopkins are what ruin it for everybody.

Roanoke keeps comparing itself to Charlotte, N.C. The city will never be a Charlotte till it gets good jobs and good wages. The only thing you have to do to double and triple your wage is cross the North Carolina line. JAMES D. KELLAM RIDGEWAY

by CNB