I don't blame people for not flocking to an extremely dangerous and grueling job only to be underpaid. There's plenty of other options. I get tired of older generations somehow trying to guilt trip us into continuing in their line of work when in reality those jobs weren't very good to begin with. Work smarter not harder. Maybe they never heard of that.

It's not an "older generation" thing. It is a "shitty employers try to have their cake and eat it" thing.

They got greedy during the downturn and don't want to give up the sweet milking of the labor supply.

I wonder how we recovered from this after The Great Depression...

Unions

half the article is basically about working smarter. new machinery that can do the work of 8 men and is much safer than the old manual methods... And the crews using these machines do attract young people. It sounds like the young people joining the industry are just decided to join crews that have greater safety and the latest technology, which means their jobs are less likely to disappear as the technology spreads; in fact, they'll be those with the most experience with new methods rather than those with the least experience with old methods.