Yeah, and our politicians don't HAVE to be corrupt either.

 

Unions in this country for the most part ran its course of usefulness with the plethora of labor laws.

 

FIXED.

 

Unions suck. The sooner they fade away into obscurity, the sooner our country can improve its competitive position.

I don't buy the argument about unions being necessary to protect workers' interests. Don't like the way things are @ your employer? LEAVE, and go find a better job!

 

[QUOTE=Poindexter,Sep 15 2008, 04:17 AM] I'm in the auto business (as a dealer) and going into this down economy we all knew there would be a drastic drop in the number of cars sold in the United States.

 

Isn't the whole point of a publicly traded company to increase shareholder value?

 

i think the problem is typically not the union itself as often as the union sheltering lazy workers.

if 20% of boeing's unionized workers are lazy and un/underproductive, it makes it difficult for boeing to pay the rest of the workforce competitively without compromising profit, R&D, or whatever else. in then end, somebody has to suffer for it.

 

THERE YA GO, typical SHAREHOLDER comment.........and you wonder why our country is in the shape that its in. ( You are correct about the CEO, however it is this mentality that has lead to the the largest financial collapse in this country, subtract the Great depression, although its not too far away.

Ok so what your saying is, basically use the labor group as a tool to simply increase the value of the company?, what you fail to realize is when you push people (labor groups) to the point where there is nothing left to lose they will glady burn the place down, along with all of your money. Treat your employees fairly and they will work hard for you, rape and pillage them so some investment company can make millions.................watch it come bite you in the ass.


Take a look at SoutWest Airlines, a UNION airline where the Pilots make over $200,000.00 a year and the company still makes money qtr after qtr, and they are treated fairly by their management.

Take a look at United, the pilots pensions went from over $1,000,000.00 to a mere $17,000/year, yet Tilton and the other Execs at United awarded themselves over $160,000,000.00 in bonuses last year...... Why you ask? because they need to keep the "talent", ya know the talent that has ran the airline into the ground.......... The difference is with the Airlines is you can fire and hire a factory worker and have him doing the job within a week or two, it takes a lot longer to turn over AIRLINE pilots........

 

You had me interested in your post at this point, but then you went on to say nothing of substance.

WHY are unions important? I read an article recently about the honda plants here in the US that are non-union and have a rigorous training program where every employee learns many jobs so that they can rotate and thousands of people show up for 50 job openings.

In union plants, you show up and learn how to screw this one bolt down and hten do it 1000 times a day and go home.

I'm not trying to bust your balls, I'm actually interested in why you think unions are important. I have a cousin who probably makes $80k driving a forklift. That's just unrealistic. A person should be paid fair market value for their skill, not some inflated price that the union negotiated for them.

I'm from detroit, I hate to see what's happening there, but I have to think that it's at least partially the union's fault.

 

Since the beginning of the airline industry, airlines have destroyed more shareholder wealth than they're created. I wouldn't be using them as a role model for union justification.

True that execs tend to get excessive payouts, but they can't reward themselves - that's up to boards, which are voted in by shareholders. Don Carty got pushed out of American for similar greed, and you can only hope that shareholders and boards be vigilant to keep executive pay in line w/ performance.

Look @ industries that create the most wealth (like high tech), and you'll find a disproportionately low union representation among their workforces.

Similarly, foreign auto makers' US factories seem to do fine w/o union representation.