Unfortunately, years of union benefits piling on union benefits have made many of the companies they work for unviable. For instance, if Ford wants to lay off union workers, they still must 90% of their salaries and benefits for years. To unplug a computer in the Philadelphia Convention Center requires that a union electrician does the work (the actual unplugging). SEPTA union employees pay not one dime in co-pays or deductibles for their medical benefits and are willing to shut down the entire mass transit system in Philadelphia, indefinitely, to keep it that way.
When companies can not make a profit or compete because they are being squeezed for every golden egg, they have two options. Either go out of business or go to areas where unions are not as strong. This used to mean going to the mostly nonunionized Southern United States, where for the last 20 years every major automobile manufacturer has chosen to build new manufacturing plants, but now means to go overseas in search of the most competitive place to do business.
Management is not innocent, they have created this mess. They have made many unwise decisions of putting short term profits over the long term health of their companies. In the same vein, they have also agreed to outrageous union contracts because the bills and heartburn for them would come due on some elses watch in the future.
Now the bills are coming due. And all the union iron clad contracts mean nothing if the company they work for goes out of business. Just ask the workers of steel and airline companies. And ask their retirees. All wish that the company they work for or retired from was a healthy and profitable company.
Unions need to focus on how they can make the companies they work for as strong as possible. This is the only way to keep union jobs, pay and benefits around for the long run. And that doesnt mean massive pay cuts. Flexibly in work rules, retraining for new jobs when technology changes the old jobs, plugging in and using membership brains/experiences to make the company more profitable are all foreign concepts in many union shops. Their companys future is their future. For instance, when union workers in Japan go on strike, they wear arm bands that proclaim On Strike as they continue to work. They understand that to cause unneeded financial damage to the company they work for, in these days of global competition, is one way to lose their jobs forever.
Unions also need to get out of politics. All of the major unions are strong supporters (both in money from mandatory union dues and forced volunteers) of the most liberal of democrat candidates. They have publicly taken positions of being pro-abortion, anti-gun and anti-tax cut (among a plethora of other social issues). None of these issues has anything remotely to do with how a union operates. But it serves to isolate unions from over half the population of America who want nothing to do with them just based on their political stands on these controversial issues. Many people actively avoid buying union made products because they feel they are financing their political enemies.
The unions heritage is of the craftsman guilds. When you hired a craftsman, you knew you were getting value someone who was trained, knew what they were doing and did the job right. Today, hiring a union person to do a job is synonymous for expensive, inflexible, sloppy work and belligerence. That is the image that needs to be changed for unions to flourish what can we do to provide value.
Regards,
2banana
>>the workers seeking to keep the UAW out of their shop are claiming victory<<
your jobs are still heading to china, india and eventually kenya.
I have no use for unions ever since guys from the painters' union in Pittsburgh put sugar in my company's compressor gas tank. On a more practical note, union workers DO NOT know any special Jedi mind tricks about applying paint, driving nails or turning bolts on a car chassis.
Same thing that they did to Cleveland. I'm glad more and more people are turning their backs on unions.
RIGHT ON N8! AS YOU KNOW, THEY TRIED UNIONIZING MY SHOP, HERE IN TAMPA, TWICE (THEY BEING IBEW AND CWA)AND HAVE BEEN SHOT DOWN BOTH TIMES. WE ARE MUCH BETTER OFF FOR IT.
Spell checker doesn't help dummies.
This is some sort of weird double-think that I just can't begin to parse.
So these guys are basically anti UAW because they don't think the union is hard line enough.
Wonderful.
"Many of the Web sites are calling for a work slowdown at Delphi plants..."
It always amazes me that the union's solution to a company on its way out of business is more strikes and "work slowdowns"... It doesn't take an IQ of 80 to figure where that's going...
Like Liberalism, insanity is repeating failure over and over again and expecting a different outcome...
Gee, no mention that maybe some Blue Collar types are sick and tired of their union dues going to support the Rats.
I grew up in WV with the UMW. They have done the very same thing to WV. And liberals like Byrd and Rockefeller are working hard to make it worse!!!
There is also the 'turf wars' among unions that have different unions fighting each other for the exclusive right to certain tasks, such as unloading a truck, instead of letting whoever the employeer has on hand to get the job done. Then the 'special' task worker gets a minimum days pay for a 2 hour job.
Finally, the unions destroy their own company by the antagonistic attitude they create against it. They create an 'us versus them' mentality with strikes, illegal sickouts, and other hissy fits like the United Pilots union in the summer of 2000, when they pulled this little stunt: 1. Call a mechanic and say something is wrong with the plane. 2. When so much time has passed that if they complete the flight, the last few minutes of flying time will be overtime, walk off the plane by saying you refuse to work overtime. 3. Plane load of suckers get to spend the night at Camp O'Hare.
Non-union employees also have an 'us vs. them' mentality; their 'us' is the employees and the company they work for, while their 'them' is competition. This results in better treatment of customers because they want their company to win, unlike unions, which always seem to be trying to do everything they can to 'get' their own company.
The sad thing is that all of the above problems with unions result in very little or no benefit for the actual workers, even though they cost the companies a great deal.
Not meaning to revive an old post, but it's funny that this story was posted right before the union in New York took a humiliating defeat. That there is funny...I don't care who you are. Getter-done!
No! to any UAW made products:
http://www.uaw.org/uawmade/index.cfm