Posted on 11/23/2008 10:09:35 AM PST by Fred
Unions are to blame for the Big Three automakers’ problems, according to a television ad meant to stoke public opposition to organized labor’s number one legislative priority.
“Steel, auto, airlines. What do these industries all have in common?” asks the ad sponsored by the business-backed Employee Freedom Action Committee, which was active in several hotly contested Senate races this year. “Hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and union bosses that helped put them out of business.”
The advertisement urges people to fight the Employee Free Choice Act, which unions hope will be taken up quickly by the Democratic Congress and President-elect Barack Obama. The bill would eliminate the requirement for workers to cast secret ballots in deciding whether to organize, making it easier to form unions.
Business groups are paying for the ad to run on CNN and the Fox cable news network Monday through Wednesday, according to the group’s spokesman, Tim Miller. He said the ad buy was “fairly substantial” but declined to specify a figure. A similar ad ran in Mississippi and New Hampshire in conjunction with Senate races in those states, where business groups worked to tie Democrats to the Employee Free Choice Act.
“If Americans like what the unions did to Detroit’s economy, they’ll love what the unions will do to the country,” said Richard Berman, the business group’s executive director.
“The unions have played a significant role in nearly bankrupting the Big Three automakers with untenable inefficiencies which have put tens of thousands out of work,” Bergman said. He said the union bill, known as “card-check legislation,” would do the same to millions of jobs across the country.
Alan Reuther, legislative director for the United Autoworkers, blasted the ad and Bergman’s comments. He said the auto industry’s problems rest on a series of bad trade and healthcare policies, and that the credit crunch is to blame for the current crisis.
Reuther also said major concessions offered by unions in their 2005 and 2007 contracts will result in the elimination of the cost-gap between union and non-union plants. “We feel that we’ve stepped up to the plate,” he said.
He also pointed to a 2007 report by two auto industry consulting firms that found nine of the 10 most-efficient auto plants in North America have workers organized by the United Autoworkers or the Canadian Autoworkers.
Congressional leaders have asked the cash-strapped auto companies to come up with a business plan over the next two weeks if they want $25 billion in aid. Executives from the three companies were in Washington this week pleading for help.
Besides arguing that it would slow the economy, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups warn that card-check would let union bosses intimidate workers into forming unions.
Labor groups charge that the current system allows employers to use intimidation tactics to stop workers from organizing. Allowing workers to form unions by checking cards authorizing a specific union to represent them rather than casting secret ballots would solve the problem, they say.
Separately, a coalition of business groups wrote to members of Congress urging that they not sign on to card-check legislation.
“Particularly at a time of economic uncertainty, Congress should not enact measures that threaten our economic competitiveness, including the Employee Free Choice Act,” stated the letter, which was signed by dozens of business groups.
Is Alan related to Walter ?
If Alan Reuther is so confident about the Unions role maybe he should support the idea of allowing workers to have a vote on whether they want to give him and his cronies total control over their futures. Instead, Alan has decided that he knows what’s best for the little people and thinks workers need to support him whether they like it or not.
I don’t think unions are the problem. People are allowed by our 1st Amendment free association and free speech, which includes the right to boycott. So unions in the purely Constitutional sense are fine.
It’s when the management and unions are in collusion that I think there is a (criminal racketering?) problem. Also if the government gets involved and forces management to accept union demands, that’s interference in the free market. Otherwise, managment and unions should be able to negotioate freely. And if they can’t come up with an agreement, then management should be allowed to hire different employees.
Ultimately, like everything else, the problems stem from government interference. Unions of people have a right to ask for whatever they want. The don’t have a ‘right’ to get it.
He is the nephew of Walter Reuther, the founder and former president of the modern-day UAW.
I am not saying that the UAW is blameless, in fact bears a great deal of responsibility for the decline of the “Big Three” but most of the responsibility I believe lies with the management of those firms.
One of the big reasons Big Steel fled Pittsburgh was the demands of the USW. Well that and Nixon and Ford refusing to do anything about Japan’s dumping.
The other dirty little secret is that Obama’s infrastructure/public works projects will mostly go to big blue cities and require union workers.
Unions create an inflexible situation. Besides the perennial expectations that each bargaining period they will get more of everything, when you have to downsize or combine, they have to be consulted and it can create a disfunctional structure where you have people being retained due to seniority rather than performance or credentials. In government, the worst of it is that union jobs cannot be replaced by public private partnerships where communities take over a greater portion of the social service, health or other load. It creates situations in government of bloat where department budgets are disproportionately salaries and benefits that escalate each year. It is VERY difficult to lay-off in a union situation. The big issue in local government will be all those union retiree benefits that have not been preplanned and the boomer retirement wave. More and more of your tax dollars will go to that and less to services.
The REAL problem is the $73 per hour (including benefits) a UAW worker makes doing a job a monkey could do. (Robots do the tough jobs). Let GM in Michigan go belly up, screw the Unions. Build GM cars in Mexico ( maybe keeping illegals there) GM becomes an import. Big Deal. UNIONS KILLED DETROIT. (Job Bank = 15,000 UAW goons paid $100k per year to do NOTHING)
You are misinformed about the constitution and unions. While it is true that the constitution ensures freedom of assembly, the constitution does not ensure a right to collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a result of the 1935 Fair Labor Standards Act and much subsequent administrative law. Collective bargaining interferes with the ability for an individual and employer to determine a labor contract.
Government has essentially told businesses to accept big labor's demands. The auto industry had little recourse to resist the outrageous demands of the UAW.
The rats have proposed some radical changes to labor laws. Card check will allow union goons to intimidate workers. The rats have proposed that a labor settlement be imposed by a federal regulator if a contract dispute cannot be resolved in some arbitrary time period. The rats also want to remove the exception in labor laws that allow right to work (open shops).
Unions are government sanctioned labor cartels. Without the force of government, big labor would collapse.
The dummies in GM management knew that the UAW would walk out if their demands werent met. Times were good, so the execs passed the buck to the future. Cowards all.
This is very smart of these business owners, to get out in front of this. I guess that’s why these guys actually earn money while the politicians and union thugs just steal it.
Now, if they could only say how much the unions paid Obama and congress for this law, it would really get interesting.
The first amendment includes the right of boycott, which amounts to the same thing.
Look, I think Unionism has caused great damage to our manufacturing. But I don't wish to throw the baby out with the bathwater. People are free to form unions, organize boycotts, etc. They are not free to have the goverment enforce their demands.
GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM. Until they get their act together we will always be in a big, big mess.
I think we are on the same pages regarding unions. Your interpretation of the Constitution is not correct on collective bargaining. Collective bargaining does not mean the right to assemble (or even boycott). Collective bargaining compels an employer to deal with a union. Employers should be free to fire workers if they disrupt the work environment.
Big labor is a cartel. The government restricts monopolistic business practices. The government should restrict monopolistic labor practices. Instead, the government sanctions and ever requires monopolistic labor practices (Davis-Bacon Act).
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