Would you see a Unionised Workforce as a good thing in Archaeology?

[Sparky]

Firstly.
It is not just the archaeological contracting units which drive costs and wages down. There are some consultants and their clients wish to keep their costs as tlow as possible and archaeology IS seen as a waste of time and money. What are you going to do with them? They are a big factor for keeping costs low. If a company turns round as says that reduction in costs is laughable, the client will find someone else less scrupulous.

I perceive this as a real problem.

The costs of archaeology onced passed through a consultant's accounts plus percentage on costs is extraordinary high. Therefore our clients will often see the cost of archaeology at a high but false cost compared to contracting an archaeological unit without the middle man. Clearly there is enough money within budgets to pay some of these ridiculous consultant rates, so by cutting out the consultant and their entirely profit driven ethos, surely there would be enough money for units to increase their rates and thus the wages of their staff and profit.

Like employers, consultancies should also be held responsible for the low wage problem within archaeololgy.

Redben writes that archaeology is veiwed as 'irritating obstacles which had to be cleared, putting us in the same catagory as bank voles and badgers.' which is often the superficial case but most of the archaeology we deal with is much lower in the food chain owing to badgers and bank voles being protected by specific laws. Whereas, scheduled sites, listed buildings and human remains form our only protective legislation. So, archaeology often finds itself at the rear of priorities within consultancies favouring ecology and environmental concerns largely due to greater legal hurdles. In my experience within consultancy, I found that archaeology, when not a legal issue, was deemed as unnecessary and more inconvenient than voles and badgers. I was once asked by a landscape architect what archaeologists actually did...Hmmm.

I'll add that there are some responsible archaeological consultants out there, some of whom read and post on this site...