I hate unions. The only thing they are good for is to keep the workplace safe and most of the time they dont even need to have a union to do that.
I don't hate them all. They were a necessary movement. But my modern first-hand experience has been with a very few units trying to preserve the old conflicts in order to justify their continued existence.
Some time ago, the union was the workers. Then the transition to full time, fully financed union leadership to "support" the workers became the norm. Now we have a completely outside organization telling the workers what they do and do not want, what they get and don't get.....and how much they have to spend out of their paycheck to maintain this situation.
unions were/are necessary (evil?) sometimes the pendulum swings too far one way or the other and must be corrected. (pensions, early retirement, workman's comp?) but i wouldn't want to trust completely in man's benevolence either.
Sadly, NUMMI closed because U.S. union workers, enabled by pathetic manufacturing management, were entrenched in the "mess with me and I'll wreck the product" mentality. Not given any boundaries, union workers did such poor work that closure was a given ... even though NUMMI ran better than the Michigan plants ! 2 sets of leadership - both inept. .
Mr. King, are you & the men more interested in building a quality product or in preventing your fellow slackers from being fired? If it is the former your members shouldn't have problems finding jobs. If it is the latter then the faster the manufacturers move their plants to other countries where the workers are interested in doing quality work then the better off we'll be. Picketing dealers is a real smart move. Are you saying, "Don't buy from them. They don't hire shoddy union labor."? I'm disappointed that someday the Prius may be assembled in the USA with North American parts. IMO a sure sign of deteriorating quality. I don't lay the entire blame for the fall of GM & Chrysler at your feet. However, when they went looking for Bailout Bucks, you, your union, and your members should have ponied up the cash to keep them running under your management. I'll leave you with some more advice, if any of your members can't find work, BP is hiring in the Gulf States and you may want to try organizing the oil scoopers.
Here is my question: Does anyone know the conditions the non-unionized employees work under? I mean like wages , hours, benefits... My FIL worked for a company where the the employees worked to prevent the union from coming in because they had better perk/pay packages than their unionized counterparts.
Workers in the automobile industry get a living wage precisely because there are unions in the industry. Non-union workers ride on the backs of the unions. Walmart workers get minimum wage, are treated like shit, often forced to do unpaid overtime, etc., because they have no union. They are paid so little that they qualify for welfare! And if they choose to participate in the company's "voluntary" health plan, it costs them so much they have no money left for food.
The wages and hours for non-union workers in automotive are similar to those in unions. The benefits are better for uaw workers than non-union workers. There are work rules that often impede a manufacturer, and seniority rules that conflict with merrit. These work rules often add to the cost of the product and can hurt its quality. They also tend to make jobs more boring. Newer plants often implement changes in work rules for the union members to be similar to non-union shops. NUMMI truck production is likely moved to a non-union plant in texas, and its car production will eventually be in the new non-union mississippi plant that was originally hoped for us based prius production.
Interesting there is no rationale for the picketing such as non-union workers are being mistreated. It used to be that labor movements were positioned to address grievances. What are the alledged grievances?
Big industry is strong arming workers and preventing formation of unions - a universally recognized right. Unions are like vaccines. Once they do their job - people think they are worthless and don't want to them anymore. Ofcourse, the unions themselfs can become militant - and ruin the economy. But the pendulum is now completely in the opposite side.
When a dealership is acting stupid, I am often forced to remind folks that the Dealership is an independant business, not some part of Toyota. It is just a franchise. If the Union was actually threatening to picket Toyota, I would be fine with that. Threatening independant businesses that build no Toyotas is just a 'Protection racket'. RICO should help the dealerships with extortion demands. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act[/ame]
