I don't get all the hate on unions and I also question some of the blind love for them. I don't support unions perse, I support collective bargaining. Collective bargaining gives power to workers in a situation where business holds all the chips on the table.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pylon
Spoken as a true union guy.
The business model had changed, and we had to give something up to help another department as their dept had their margins cut substantially at the manufacturer level, it's what was the right thing to do, as we have no control over manufacturer set pricing. We did what was fair for everyone. See, if it was a bunch of union guys, they would have sooner just saw the whole business burn to ground so they got what they felt was owed to them. We agreed to a solution that was fair for everyone, without the threats, and bullying of a union.
Unions do nothing good for business, and have all but ruined any chance North America will ever have to be competitive again. The unions nearly destroyed the Big 3 automakers. I don't care what anyone says, nobody deserves more than 15 bucks an hour to screw in the same 5 screws over and over, let alone 70 something dollars per hours after benefits. A subway sandwich artist is more skilled than that. The unions sit there with their Alerican flag waving commercials saying how proud they are, yet for decades, the products they built sucked ass because A) They were poorly skilled lazy bums who couldn't even do a monotonous task a 5 year old could handle correctly. B) they were so over paid, the big 3 had to make massive quality concessions to be able to turn anything the remotely resembled a profit.
There was NOBODY to blame other than the unions for what happened to the Auto Industry, and the destruction and crime ravaged ghost towns that were left in it's wake. Every single Auto Union worker has that blood on their hands right down to all the people being murdered in those cities. Their greed and ransom tactics destroyed an industry the Americans once owned and they made a huge dent in the devestation of the American economy.
Unions can GTFO and EAD.
|
I was going to post an angry rebuttal but I gave myself 10 minutes of cooling off. I'll just say this; what sank the auto industry and what sank a lot of businesses over the last several decades is a continuing war on the middle class. It's not a purposeful effort by big business and it's not evil: it's a grim reality of thousands of really really big companies looking out for themselves. When you freeze wages, slash wages, and ship good paying jobs overseas to sell a cheap product and compete with slave labour overseas (some of which you caused to begin with) you can make your business and product very competitive and appealing.
But what happens when all the other corporations and businesses do the same? Where will your customers come from? Big business over the last 3 or 4 decades have failed to realize their actions aren't in a vaccuum... they form a mosaic with all pieces coming together. This mosaic is an economy where we don't produce anything but cheap crap and have low paying jobs for everyone. No one can afford anything anymore without a family where everyone works and cuts corners. People are in debt. It's unsustainable and no one is going to take ownership of the situation because it's a death by a million cuts. The only defence we have against this is collective bargaining, because our politicians on each side of the border have long since sold their souls.
edit:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederic...twice-as-much/
A well written article regarding German automakers. They're unionised as well, pay twice as much as American companies, and are hugely profitable.