I'm sometimes surprised at how little hatred I feel towards unions generally and UAW specifically, given some very damning personal anecdotal evidence against them.
My mother was essentially forced out of her job for some very dubious reasons. She was a legal assistant for a UAW law firm, and had finally made the decision to get a new car. She got one she liked very much--a PT Cruiser. It's made by GM, right? Well this particular one was assembled in Mexico, not by a UAW worker. According to the fine print of her employment contract, my mother's employment was at risk because, even though she was driving a GM vehicle to work, it was not a UAW-made GM vehicle.
First of all, if a company doesn't offer any incentive or assistance (other than employment) to drive a certain type of car to work, how can it dare mandate what type of vehicle is driven to work? I know this legal argument would be defeated in court, but that hardly means it should be.
Secondly, #$%& UAW. Seriously, the organization needs to just die out completely. Yes, in terms of its history, it did help stop abuses by management against workers when it and other unions were first formed. Now it has supplanted those abuses with its own atrocious and much more corrupt abuses. When an organization built to fight for one moral purpose then mutates to fight only for its own survival and empowerment, it has lived beyond its moral mandate and must be eliminated.
Anyone remember 1966? Government mandated safety? That forced a large number of auto makers out of business, I think took 140 models off the road. Studebaker? Nash, Austin Healey etc, etc atc. One of the biggies was bumper height - bumpers had to be a certain number of inches measured from roadway. Bureaucrats’ theory being if all bumpers match equals safer cars. In spare time might want to cruise the parking lot and see how things went - how matching bumpers are - say between a Prius and Escalade - I am certain they match. Almost?
She got one she liked very much--a PT Cruiser. It's made by GM, right? Well this particular one was assembled in Mexico, not by a UAW worker. According to the fine print of her employment contract, my mother's employment was at risk because, even though she was driving a GM vehicle to work, it was not a UAW-made GM vehicle.
And none of those companies were having serious trouble beforehand. Funny how Studebaker got out of the car business in 1966, did the government safety standards effect the car industry that fast? Or were the companies in ailing health already? I am thinking the later, the not former.
It is easy to blame the government for such woes, glossing over the failings of the companies themselves. I wonder if the same happens with GM and Chrysler? And just in case you were wondering, I seriously doubt the government starts calling the shots at the car companies if there is 'nationalization', which I doubt happens anyways. It will be much like Chrysler under Iaccoca, taking a government loan and doing largely as they see fit.
So it isn't management's fault for not thinking ahead in what cars they brought to the marketplace..."gas will be cheap forever and everyone will always want a giant SUV". It ain't UAW that made those decisions; assign blame where blame is due. Even though quality has increased greatly with American cars, high gas prices and the inability of people to get a loan due to the credit crises is causing the Big 3 to tank.Exactly....
this is a bailout of the UAW pension fund.....nothing more.
How in the hell can you pay some asshole $80 an hour for putting the same rivet in the same hole and expect that company to make a profit. Rust-belters in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, need to diversify like N. Carolina, or those folks will be in economic shambles for a long time.
UAW makes ridiculous money. Not $80 per hour, but a good chunk of the line, which is semi-skilled labor at best, makes over $100K with OT and extra pays.
I know this book has gotten alot of play recently, but for anyone who likes capitalism and thinks nationalization of private industry is a bad idea, read Atlas Shrugged. In fact, if you think it's a GOOD idea, read this book. It will probably change your mind.
You do realize it is fiction, right?
So is the bible, but that changed how a lot of people think.