The UAW's new awareness of global competition

"...Once [unions] win comfortable contracts, they often become
impediments to the kind of innovation and flexibility essential to
success in today's economy. So in the name of 'job security,' they
undermine a company's--or a nation's--competitiveness. The result, over
time, is less job security for everyone, especially the union
workforce. There's no better example of this than GM, where the UAW now
represents about 74,000 hourly workers, compared to 246,000 in 1994.
Some security..."

Wall Street Journal: http://301url.com/ciu

 

Odd isn't it that GM continues to lose more and more market share as it
reduces it's unionized labor force, and yet the loss of market share is the
unionized workers' fault. Bizarro economic model, no? Let's not blame the
bean-counter managers who force (non-union) engineers to cut corners in the
design to save a few dollars per unit but which results in shitty designs
and inferior quality.

Let's face it, most managers at GM are really indifferent to cars. GM could
be making appliances for all they care. They serve only one master, profit.
Producing high quality cars that are fun to drive is way down their list of
priorities. And quality starts with a quality design. The best factory
workers in the world can't produce a quality product from an inferior design
and using sub-standard parts.

 

Statistics can be read anyway you want them to. This statistic reminds
me of a story I heard.
Wishing to buy a new car, a man goes to his insurance agent and says
"I want to buy the color of car
that is the safest on the road. Do some research and tell me what
colored car is involved in the least
amount of road accidents". So the agent says to the man a few days
later "According to our research,
the color yellow is involved in the fewest car accidents on the road".
Feeling like he is making a safe purchase,
the man buys a bright yellow new car.

Will this car prove to be accident free because it was yellow?
Probably not. The reason yellow cars are involved
in the fewest accidents is because very few cars are ordered with
bright yellow paint.

Now I have nothing against unions but I've never been a union member.
However, does anybody have the statistics
that say how many people GM has on the assembly line today compared to
1994? Some areas of assembly are now done by a robot that were not in
1994. I think you need to look at market share and also what
percentage are made in a different country that would not have a union
work force.That way we cam compare apples to apples and oranges to
oranges.

 

Would it make a difference if the engineers were unionized?

It's all about money. The automobile business went to hell about the mid to
late '60s. Just look at the crappy blah boxes they've been making.

 

Not likely. The point is, regardless of the union/non-union status of the
workers involved in developing and producing the car, if management cuts
corners the product will suffer. The Japanese manufacturers who produce cars
in North America do NOT, in my opinion, produce better cars because the
plant workers are non-union.

 

Half of those jobs were lost to the increased productivity brought on by
computers, robots and modern build methods, like one piece whole side body
stampings.

mike

 

Looks like job security was gone with the free trade agreement. Lets see,
all the U.S. is getting out of the deal is a bunch of crapy lead based toys
from china. People that buy this crap are undermining the american worker
and causing a Loss of American Jobs!!! Not to mention risking the health and
lives of their children.

 

Didn't Chrysler sell in 2006 their Sebring assembly line of 200+ robots
to the Russians, so they could "hire" more new robots?
http://www.automotive.com/features/90/auto-news/23145/index.html

It isn't just GM using robots.

IMO robots have improved product consistency, assuming the workers are
properly trained to operate them.

 

Doesn't America have 30 year low unemployment rates?????


The only way to get more Americans working is by bringing in more immigrants
LOL.

 

No - I think most European countries' rates are about twice that of the
U.S., so one of them would be the 30 year low, with several others
having way more unemployment than the U.S.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

And the median income of Americans has risen little if at all in the
last five years. The President is not worries at all about this. After
all, CEOs and his buddies on Wall Street and the excutives of oil
companies are making record salaries and bonuses, including monies
'earned' on stock options.

 

Also according to a recent Business Week a low 10% of people employed in
manufacturing as manufacturing jobs move offshore.
They say manufacturing jobs lead to ups and downs in employment, so
unemployment is becoming lower and more stable as manufacturing jobs
disappear.

Now for those cars soon coming from China!

 

Do you mean a 30 year low wage? Keep bringing in ILLEGAL felons and you
will have to change your language to spanish. LOL