Posted on 12/30/2008 5:30:21 AM PST by reaganaut1
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How is it that successful executives become so unsuccessful as soon as they move to Detroit? Also, how can we explain that whenever GM, Ford and Chrysler leave our shores, they compete well in foreign markets as varied as Europe, South America and China? What makes them viable competitors as soon as they cross the border?
One can point to state franchise laws, or to the federal government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations. But the most striking difference appears to be that the Detroit Three are unionized, and the foreign transplants are, overwhelmingly, not. (The exceptions are the transplants that have historic ties to the Detroit Three, like NUMMI, the GM-Toyota venture in California.) Yet the issue can't just be about wage rates. The foreign transplants pay well, and the UAW has given significant concessions in recent bargaining.
It is perhaps the mode of doing business in a unionized company that remains a crippling disadvantage. The UAW is arguably the most successful industrial union of all time. But its very strength has allowed it to permeate into every aspect of manufacturing in the Detroit Three.
The collective bargaining agreement with the UAW is a heavily negotiated document the size of a small telephone book. It is virtually identical for each of the Detroit Three, owing to "pattern" bargaining, but it doesn't exist at all in their U.S. competition, the nonunionized transplants. Not only work rules, but fundamental business decisions to sell, close or spin-off plants are forbidden without permission. That permission may come, but only at a price, since everything that affects the workplace must be negotiated.
Both the UAW and the Detroit Three maintain large staffs of lawyers, contract administrators, and financial and human-resources representatives whose principal job is to negotiate with the other side.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Toyota, Honda, etc. are unionized... everywhere except the United States. They have factories in Asia, Europe and Latin America... all unionized.
During the Motor City Bowl, the biggest commercial was made by the Carpenter’s union. The whole time, all I could think was “Lions 0-16” along with some Labor Thugs beating up some guy working on his own house.
Anyone with a fraction of a brain knows that the UAW is nothing more than an anachronistic behemoth that sucks the life out of companies.
Simply put, the ‘bailout’ of the Big Three is nothing more than a UAW bailout. Let them all go under, then watch them re-emerge in the South sans UAW. We all know this is exactly what would happen, and would allow the Big Three to thrive, not just survive.
This is what so many of us find SO frustrating. The unions own the Dems, the Dems are in control, so common sense and the free enterprise system take a back seat to political expediency.
Stomach-turning.
Perhaps that's the plan. Yeah, that's the ticket...stamp out capitalism wherever it is found...
More from the article:
As the Obama administration takes the helm, the key political question is whether the Democratic Party, which has so benefited from union support, will have the courage to push the UAW into a more reasonable relationship with the Detroit Three.
I highly doubt it.
Stomach-turning.
Yes, it is. But, no worries, we'll all have "free" health care soon.
I used to know someone, an IRS employee, whose job it was to represent the government in negotiations with the IRS employees’ union. The stories he would tell me were horrifying.
Michigan ping!
Yes, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. Michigan will never recover economically until these auto companies go broke or move to other states.
MI is not a right-to-work state and that’s the real problem that will keep this place a cesspool. There is no chance that will change until everyone has moved out of the state so we can start over.
First you have the UAW, with local expressways named after the founding thug, add in the AFL-CIO with it’s tentacles all over the place. Compound that with all lazy state emmployees and there local unions, pile on the counties employee’s unions.
And oh, the worse one of all, the MEA - the state teacher’s union. Oops we don’t want to forget about all those union employees that belong to Cities like Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor.
Silly me, how’d I forget those wonderful Teamsters that have a lock on so many warehouses, city halls, convention centers, and trucking firms.
..and, the unions are owned by organized crime.
Well, all that means is that they are wise not to saddle themselves with thousand pound fetters in the world's largest auto market. If you have to get bled, the least one could do is not get bled in a place like the US.
Those unions have nothing whatsoever in common with the concept of the American type of union or the UAW except for the English word, “union.”
Spend some time in Japan.
Completely wrong. Foreign car companies which build and sell vehicles in the USA are subject to the same regulations and they are able to make a profit under these conditions.
I encourage everyone to reduce their union footprint wherever possible. All else being equal, choose the non-union alternative. I prefer to buy American but not when it supports socialist, anti-competitive behavior.
A little research goes a long way.
As the Obama administration takes the helm, the key political question is whether the Democratic Party, which has so benefited from union support, will have the courage to push the UAW into a more reasonable relationship with the Detroit Three.
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A more reasonable relationship would one that sent the UAW packing.
But courage, on the Dim’s side, is going to be in short supply for the next four years.
I am very happy to be driving my NON-union 2008 Honda Accord...
and i will never buy a union product.
A foot?! Closer to two-and-a-half feet thick.
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
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