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Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp
Are the unions the ones responsible for making cars that people don't want to buy? I would think that the executive teams should be taking the fall for the issues that domestic car manufacturers are experiencing right now.
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Hmm....I'll read the rest of this thread later (and I'm sorry if someone's addressed this already) but yes, unions are partially responsible for having companies sell things they don't want to believe it or not!
The Ford Focus is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure it's happened on many occasions. It was released in 1998, and was very well received. After being re-designed, with a 2005 model being released world-wide, North America didn't receive the new Focus. Why? It was built on a different platform (shared with the Mazda 3 and Volvo S40), so the factories would have to temporarily close to re-configure. This would cause employees to be temporarily out of work, and either making EI, receiving assistance from Ford, or maybe even both! The UAW said no to this, so instead, we got the same car until 2008, where they redesigned it. Of course, it's still on the old inferior platform, the revisions mainly being body and interior. Because of the unions, North Americans are being sold a 10 year old car with a face-lift, whereas the rest of the world is enjoying something that's 3 years old (and has received absolutely great reviews by everybody!).
I'm not trying to defend American car companies here, as I think they had their big share of screw-ups. The union is a bigger screwup, and while that's their fault for letting them in too, the unions could possibly understand that in a recession, you can't do that kinda junk. I just got increased from 5 sick days a year to 10 BTW. I never even used all 5 when I had 5.
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Yup. There rarely is an animal as lazy as a veteran union employee. Try taking pride in doing your job fast and well in a union environment. I guarantee someone will take you aside and tell you to slow down because you are making everyone else look bad.
Unions are demonized because they operate in a world that is not based in reality, breeding and rewarding ineptitude and mediocrity. There is a reason why West Jet is outperforming most of North America's airlines, and I would point directly at the fact that West Jet is not unionized. It's also a big reason, I think, why West Jet's staff cares a hell of a lot more about doing a good job than Air Canada's staff.
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Bang on.