You do realize the skilled labor to yahoo mechanic percentage is the same in union shops and non union shops right? This is why union shops and non union shops have mechanics and adjusters.
Alot of the time mods are pushed because the oem equipment is genuinely worn out or unreliable, not just because the small shop couldn't figure some proprietary secret out. Heck my boss used to get mad at me for fixing cars he said was done and "needed" a mod.
Although modding 411s to kone is just dumb. Mods are supposed to be done to real quality equipment like the independents use, nidec or HW or torin. That's the whole point is to get rid of unreliable proprietary equipment. My favorite is a customer that does their homework or hires a consultant then SPECS what they want. I love seeing canton jobs or mods with torin machines/mce controllers done by kone or other union shops. Customer got good equipment no matter who won the bid.
all the small outfits in my area are union, so this isn't a union vs non-union pissing match. Honestly the 411 to Kone job was one of the nicer Otis jobs in town, it was very clean. It needed door operators and all the doors & locks gone through, but some companies have good salesmen and/or customers that like to spend money. A lot of jobs just need this rather than a full blown mod. I do believe in adding secondary brakes (rope grippers) on old equipment. door lock monitoring is a good one too, but neither are mandatory on older equipment in my area. My experience has been mixed with Torin. I still prefer HW (have no experience with GT machine) but I admit getting a good geared machine from anyone these days seems to be getting harder. Also seems GAL & MCE are charging more and more for parts, but this isn't surprising. I think they will eventually go the route of the larger companies. Making things obsolete and offering drop in "upgrades".
