>>Equal pay for equal work<< Long hours happen. If it happens a lot without compensation, vote with your feet.
>>Strech goals<< Yup. Thats the way it works. See above solution.
>>At-Will which only goes to show that we have the best government that money can buy.<< I knew that you understood the American way.
>>Management always passed down the blame<< Yup. And union manangement is going to change corporate management? Union managment IS corporate management.
>>I bet you like doing ....<< At the end of the day, my job is to get things designed and built. If I have to build a custom environement, that's just part of the job. I've had to do data entry, QA, build machines, move machines, run cables, install power lines because we didn't have 220V lines in the lab, build custom utilites so the QA people can do their jobs, and a lot more. Do what you have to do to get the job done. If it becomes onerous, vote with your feet.
>>I am not talking about a wonderful life, just a decent one where I get the respect I should get, and I get a job were I am treated fairly.<< Respect is not something you automatically get. It is earned. Fair treatment is a matter of perspective. If you are more valuable to your employer, the employer would consider it more fair to take care of you in favor of somebody who is immediately replaceable. The employee is not likely to look at things like that. Like I said, perspective and the feet thing.
Hugh