A clarification regarding the letter to the editor “Arguments Against Raytheon Plant Fall Flat,” [Sept. 15, Xpress]. The letter writer states: “The average annual salary is slated to be roughly $68,000, significantly higher than the area’s current salary of $45,000.”
However, this June 29 narrative from [the Citizen Times via] A-B Tech, which is providing training to potential Pratt & Whitney employees at taxpayer expense, states: “Previously, Pratt & Whitney has said those local jobs will average $68,000 a year, but that figure includes management and engineering jobs. Floor workers at the new facility likely won’t be making that much, Kevin Kimrey, director of Economic and Workforce Development at A-B Tech, said last fall. The wages are still solid, though, and Kimrey expects machinists and other skilled floor labor to be earning salaries in the ballpark of $40,000-$50,000 range.”
Pratt & Whitney information on A-B Tech’s website, dated July 9, adds: “The greatest number of jobs will be associated with plant floor operations.”
One flaw severely damages any argument. One flaw about the salary workers can expect for putting time and effort into a job at this plant will hurt them and those who depend on them.
— Cynthia Heil
Asheville
Yep, just keep giving tax breaks to the wealthy: Opportunity Zone for Woodfin Bluffers, Handouts to Pratt Propellers.
Just keep selling forests and long-time taxpaying residents down the river.
Oh, ye of little leadership: your future is filth.
Did Ms. Heil write this after a late night of drinking? Did she only recently discover the mathematical definition of the term ‘average’? Furthermore, does she not value entry level employment starting @$50k with fully paid college tuition benefits, healthcare and 401k? If not, she is wildly unaware of the economic challenges of her own neighbors here in the mountains. That is one if the many flaws in her thinking.
Grandad, I was going to make similar contents but you nailed it.
I did like her line that said, “One flaw severely damages any argument.” Inability to know what an average is probably counts.