Did we just watch the death of the American Union movement?
Unions have been in decline for years, or so the raw numbers say. And now one of the best known and best paid has agreed to lower wages and less benefits for many of its members over the next few years.
Although the alternative may be no job at all, what logic can there be for accepting a job knowing you will make less each year, while prices around you rise?
"`This is the beginning of the end of the well-paid UAW workers and probably the well-paid manufacturing worker in America,‘’ said Gary Chaison, a labor professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. ``I don’t think there is a clear winner, but it tends to lean more toward GM than the UAW.‘’
Is compromise good in order to keep a roof over everyones head and food on the table? Yes
They may have to eat a little less( which if you have seen the size of the average US citizen is not a bad thing), buy a little less beer or smokes, they may not get to rent a movie or two but, they do get to keep a roof, food, clothing and utilities.
Unions are a scam anyway. I worked for the Ironworkers once for a week. I didn’t do a single thing except smoke cigarettes and hold a fire extinguisher while these two guys took a whole week to weld two beams. I was paid something like $16 an hour. We worked 12 hr days with 4 of those hours being overtime at time and a half, and 12 hours of double time on Sunday. To put it simply, the business which needed the labor was thouroughly exploited by us, and I took home over $1200 for absolutley no work whatsoever. I think it’s a real tragedy when collective bargaining is used in such a way as to screw companies over like that.
Unions are good for the workers, but bad for companies. Why would they want the workers protected? They would rather hire someone at starting pay and not give them a raise for two years, and then fire them and hire someone new.
Nobody keeps their jobs for a long time theese days. The average is 2 years. Back in the day, people worked like 15 or 30 years at the same place.
Yea , and that is the reason companies lose money but, it can be used as a tax writeoff if you have good accountants… You actually save money by keeping employees and giving them raises. Training and losing productivity of two or more people during training actually costs more in the long run. Also cheaply paid employees make crap products which get returned and you must reimburse the consumer or stand lawsuits etc… Loss of money… but, in the short term you do get to put money in your wallet faster with a high turnover rate, you just lose in the end. When we had employees I did the whole cost run scenario for a ten year plan, high turnover was more costly than high pay, raises and benifits.
The UAW had their heads buried in the sand along with the rest of the industry. Their expectations are completely unrealistic and have been for years- the wages & benefits they demand are implausible in an era when the biggest American auto makers are struggling to keep the doors open, hemoraging cash while the Asian companies eat their lunch. American companies just aren’t competitive, and unions are one of the major reasons.