Posted on 12/13/2008 5:20:55 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
To the extent the MSM has been willing to report on the disadvantage under which the Big Three automakers operate compared to their non-union competitors, the focus has been on the huge wage differential.
On this evening's Fox News Watch, conservative columnist Jim Pinkerton highlighted another issue which has gone largely unreported in the liberal media: the onerous union work rules that add literally thousands of positions to the job rolls compared to those of the foreign transplants.
View video here.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
UAW work rules as bad as high wages ping to Today show list.
Thanks for the excellent link. Union contract: 2,215 pages!
A few months ago a Honda plant in Ohio broke down. Due to the ability for people to work together and not be hampered by restrictive rules the plant was up and running after losing about 100 cars production. If a Big 3 plant broke down the same way it was estimated they would loose 600-800 cars that could have been produced.
Long, long ago, some of my high school acquaintences went to work for American Motors in Milwaukee. They bragged about how they could drink all night and sleep in the bathrooms at the plant all day and management couldn’t touch them. Their shop steward protected them.
So this is what we have with the auto unions. But there is no American Motors any longer.
That can be a double edged sword for the union.
The one line that I bet is missing.....
"The company retains exclusive right to manage its business."
This is the most important line that management can point to in consolidating the job classifications. However, in general it is not the production guys who are the most troublesome. It's the trades, plumber, carpenter, electrician, machine repair, millwright.
The trades work 40 hours during the week and then work mountains of O/T on the weekends and holidays doing PM and fixing repairs that were cobbled to keep the line running.
Unions don’t have work rules. They have don’t work rules.
Every union member goes to work thinking “how long can I not work today’ How can I screw the company today.”
There is a name for this “adding unnecessary jobs” B.S.! It’s called “featherbedding”. This is the same technique unions used to wreck the railroad industry in this country.
Sorry (not really), I have little to no sympathy for labor unions in this country. They bear primary responsibility for pricing more than one of our major industries out of business.
I know. My father was a fireman for the railroad. When they went to diesel, he hated not being of use, although he could have, and gotten paid for it, but at a somewhat advanced age, he studied for his engineers' exam and passed handily. He wanted to work for his paycheck, not just collect it.
Someone wiser than I once told me that you should always ask yourself whether you are really earning the money you make. If not, then you might want to think about getting another job.
A wise person indeed. Could the entire Congress ask itself that question and answer it honestly?
I can vividly recall reading an article in Business Week magazine in the 70’s about a Ford engine casting plant located in Birmingham, AL. The workers went on strike and no agreement was on the horizon. Ford told the workers that if they refused Ford’s final offer, then Ford would shut the plant down and cast the engine blocks outside the U. S. The union rejected Ford’s offer and the plant was shut down.
It wasn’t about the welfare of the workers, but the jeopardy that Ford presented to the union brass. The workers lost their jobs, but the union brass just moved on to another location.
No one asked Gettlefinger what his annual salary is. No one.
Not every union member works like that! That is an awful broad brush you have there! My Dh is union but now UAW and yes there are a lot of people who do work like that but there are also folks who work just like anyone else.
And that's a bad thing???
Sure. That is why the comparison between Dems and unions can be made so easily. They divide people into groups so each one can be catered to or fought against.
Yeah, it’s the same with the union railroad workers. It’s ridiculous.
A great example: I was on the Coastal NJ Trainsit line to New York on Friday. Pulling up to the Elizabeth station I spotted two guys who were throwing salt or something down to melt the ice from the recent storm. Ahead of them walked some guy with a hand held radio and trailing them was a guy with a yellow vest and stop sign in his hand.
Four employees - two of whom were actually working - the other two who were just walking. Is that an efficient use of man power and time? And - all four union members collecting a paycheck subsidized by tax payers.
The unions are now screaming at the Senators who voted against the bailout, ha they want to break the unions, and support foreign automakers. These are not people who should have any say in what goes on. They are totally self-serving and know nothing about economics.
Unions have artificially raised wages and costs of doing business beyond a gradual gain that would be seen in a pure capitalist economy. Now they want Union Check Cards. Please. If they try that crap at my plant, I will shut down and they don’t get jack. I doubt any of my employees would agree to sign on board knowing full well what my reaction will be.
Death to the unions, and then do away with the minimum wages, which is an artificial number put in place as a result of non-market driven union wages.
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