My, you seem as monomaniacal about unions as Jack Welch. And what precisely do you know about manufacturing skill?
Are all the Japanese (Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Honda),German (BMW, Mercedes, --Chrysler is now under Daimler-Chrysler ownership) and Korean (Hyundai, and KIA) American assembly plants unionized? Does this automatically make them 'better' than their U.S.-firm counterparts? Some objective numbers, please.
If not, then you have some 'splainen to do.
A simple starting point is the fact that 400 dollars of every American car produced under union labor goes toward paying the health benefits for Union workers. That is approximately 3 percent of the value of the average car. This is not an amount based on what it costs to make the car, this is an amount that is inflexible because the Union was able to force it the manufacturers through threats of strikes or actual strikes. I am not monomiacal about Unions, I think I am realistic. The reason Unions are disappearing is because in a free market you have to sell you labor based on what it is actually worth, not based on what you and your fellow Union members think it is worth. There is absolutely nothing about being a Union member that makes you a better employee. All it does is make you a higher paid employee. Toyota, for one, has set up a plant in Alabama, with non union labor and pays them less than their counterparts in Detroit. I certainly don't think there is any dispute that Toyotas are as good as any car made in Detroit. From my own personal experience, the Toyota is a superior car.