Michael Wallace said:
QOUTE:
I have come to realize that Unions, though often beneficial to workers, frequently seek to limit technology advancement, even when it is clearly in the best interest of the company.
Okay--- What are your ideas for better working conditions/worker benefits,in addition to being more competetive? You have obviously never sweat on the floor of a foundry or crawled up under the dash of a car 400 times a day to install wiring. These jobs are only high paying because 30 years ago the auto companies had such a high turnover that money was the only way to get manpower to stay.
We in the auto industry certainly face tough competition and we all want to keep our jobs for the present as well as for future generations. The Union is partially responsible for worker protection laws that afford the U.S. one of the lowest rates for worker death and injury. People died for the cause and you ,too, benefit from it whether you want to face it or not.
I BEG G.M. to be more competetive and if you came to work with me for a day you would see that there is a LOT of waste that has nothing to do with The Union.We struggle to keep 25 year old machinery running.
But we do. And with much pride and hard work.
In closing, go ahead and go to school and learn from the people in the Ivory Tower of Acadamia. Then work for a summer doing some real work getting $5 per hour. Then maybe you will appreciate what the Union does for the common man.
Okay, I wan't trying to insult you personally, but since the gloves are off.
First, I once worked as a car audio installer, crawling "up under the dash of a car 400 times a day to install wiring," and I didn't get $25 per hour to do it. I know what it means to work. I worked my way through college, paying for it out of my own pocket. My parents didn't help with anything, not tuition, living expenses, nothing. I didn't even use governement subsidized loans until I got to law school and had no other choice.
Second, better worker conditions/benefits can come from:
1. Increasing the minimum wage, requiring health care, etc
2. OSHA and other workplace safety regulations.
3. Workers Compensation
4. Creative legislation (how about tying CEO compensation to worker pay?)
5. I could think of more, but I have other things to do.
Third, I'm not mad that you and your high school dropout buddies make as much as the average attorney who has spent seven years in post secondary education, racking up enormous debt. It does bother me that Unions use work preservation clauses, among other things, to prevent plant closings or changed work assignments even when such relocations are best for the company, and would ultimately create more jobs.
I am sure that you work very hard and take pride in what you do, but you don't need the union to do that. You work hard because you like to take pride in what you do. The Union conditions people to think that it is necessary, but it is not. I would much rather see a thriving GM with many more $20 per hour workers than a declining GM, paying $25-30 per hour to the workers that it hasn't laid off yet.