Re: BIG UNIONS Shoot Themselves in the Foot...Again.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The CEO of GM claimed he spends more time on the workers health care costs than he does building cars....

[/ QUOTE ] Not to mention the fact that for every car GM sells, it has to pay a couple grand in "legacy costs" for its retired employees.

Even if the company were just as efficient and consumer-oriented as the Asian companies, there's simply no way they would overcome this. It will literally destroy them.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, no no. 73,000 workers walking off the job is going to convince GM NOT to move jobs overseas.

Re: Big strike at GM
 

Ike, its not exactly news that companies prefer setting up non-union factories. Of course businesses want to lower costs. The solution here is to simply get rid of right-to-work and federalize labor laws.

Felix,

[ QUOTE ]
Also companies they get unions deserve them. Usually by being arrogant and neglectful towards the workers.

[/ QUOTE ]
I can't think of a better reason for unions. Indeed, the major reason the UAW has had trouble breaking into the Japanese plants is that they are paying their workers a similar wage to the union plants. Guess why.

Re: Big strike at GM
 

[ QUOTE ]

-Michigan has the second highest per-unit labor costs in the nation
-Between 1970 and 2000 non-right-to-work states lost 2.3 million manufacturing jobs
-right-to-work states over the same period gained 1.4 million manufacturing jobs.
-Wages in rtw states are lower, but that is w/o cost of living adjustments
-2001 David Kendrick of the National Institute for Labor Relations Research did similar calculations for nine Midwestern states and found that take-home pay was higher under right-to-work laws.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
The solution here is to simply get rid of right-to-work and federalize labor laws.


[/ QUOTE ]

Iron, did you not read his post?

Re: Big strike at GM
 

[ QUOTE ]
The solution here is to simply get rid of right-to-work and federalize labor laws.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, thats the solution to unionize every factory, which would have a negative effect. The amount of outsourcing due to increased labor costs would skyrocket.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also companies they get unions deserve them. Usually by being arrogant and neglectful towards the workers.


[/ QUOTE ]

I can't think of a better reason for unions. Indeed, the major reason the UAW has had trouble breaking into the Japanese plants is that they are paying their workers a similar wage to the union plants. Guess why.

[/ QUOTE ]

This actually proves my point Iron. All I'm asking for workers to decide if they need the union or not. If other factories prosper w/o unions, why can't Michigans?

Re: Big strike at GM
 

[ QUOTE ]
The solution here is to simply get rid of right-to-work...

[/ QUOTE ]
You heard it folks. Iron wants to get rid of your right to work. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Big strike at GM
 

Although I'm not that familiar with labor laws, I'm pretty sure that there is a "decertification" process whereby a factory's workers can dump the union. The point is, that the threat of unionization rings hollow if labor laws are moved toward the corporate position. Given declining union enrollment, other workers won't have the choice of unionization. We'll see how high the wages in the Japanese factories are then.

Also, from the first sentence of the mission statement for the National Institute of Labor Relations:

"Over the past two decades, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) has documented the harm inflicted on workers and society by compulsory unionism."

Sounds kind of shilly.

Re: Big strike at GM
 

[ QUOTE ]
Indeed, the major reason the UAW has had trouble breaking into the Japanese plants is that they are paying their workers a similar wage to the union plants.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, there are unions in Japanese auto plants. The difference is that rather than being protectionist organizations that use violence and government coercion to try to benefit a few members at the expense of everyone else in society, Japanese unions typically understand actual economics, that wages rise with productivity, and hence the unions work *with* employers to increase productivity.

Re: Big strike at GM
 

iron,

I'm really not sure what you are getting at. Under your earlier assumption, wouldn't workers stop falling unionization rates if they were being treated badly? Right to work doesn't destroy unionization, it destroys bad unions.
I'll define a bad union as one that it is either:
1. Not needed
2. Has a negative effect on its workers at the present time

I don't see how you could say 1 or 2 isn't true about the (CURRENT) UAW

I think you are kind of out of your element here.

Re: Big strike at GM
 

[ QUOTE ]

"Over the past two decades, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) has documented the harm inflicted on workers and society by compulsory unionism."

[/ QUOTE ]
There are many more studies out there that support right to work, but I gotta go to bed

Re: Big strike at GM
 

[ QUOTE ]
Although I'm not that familiar with labor laws

[/ QUOTE ]

Then why did you start a thread about, and fill it with recommendations for labor law changes?