UAWU membership

1969 1.53 million

1979 1.5 million

2003 625,000

2007 500,000


You can ignore opinions all you want, but you cant ignore the trend.


<---- Union jobs

 

Sure?...Have you met a guy here named Dave?

 

Come to think of it, with most of the characters around here, yeah that was a pretty stupid thing for me to say.

 

Thanks Quintin I'm glad you said that, it's good to have healthy conversation about labor, especially when we are from different parts of the country.

Being a labor guy I natually don't like union bashers, but I am aware that some non-union companies offer their workers equally fair wages and benefits, usually this is because of a high union population in the area and the company must provide competitive wages.

Their are also companies out there that offer their employees a growth benefit package, the company grows and is more profitable, you'll get a higher wage, better benefits etc...


Oh, Podunk? That is your government allowing companies to move.
The Bush team decided to bail out the airlines, but where did they buy their planes?? Airbus that where.
Our government could have stipulated that "yeah, we will bail you out but you are buying Boeing planes", could have saved 30k workers jobs, yes that's right I've seen 30k hard working americans get layed off at my work place.
SO whether your union or non-union your preaching to the masses on this one.

Another question, when was the last GM strike?

 

Please elaborate on how the government is suppose to resolve the problem?



That wont solve the problem of non-union companys producing cheaper products due to lower production costs.

Why would the government force the airlines to buy American, when even the U.S. military is getting a large amount of its aircraft parts produced over seas?

Only 12.5% of Americans have union jobs, you cant expect the other 87.5% to pay through the nose to keep you in your over paid jobs.

Unions ARE a good thing. Unions that demand an excessive amount of compensation to the point that they are destroying their own industry are bad.

 

That my friend is part of the "World Economy" we work in.
Say China wants to buy some planes, they will purchase them only if Boeing offloads some work their way. It sucks but it happens.
I'm not happy about at all but Boeing does it.
Our government could prevent it through negotiations with countries and their own labor laws.

I don't all the answers, it's a confusing time for labor.
We have kids comming into the workforce that won't work the medial jobs we did when we entered the workforce. So who does the work? Illegals mostly, but our government does close to nothing to supress the influx.

The airplane parts you speak of are built by our allies, so I guess it's a I scratch your back you scratch mine kind of thing.

Unions ARE a good thing. Unions that demand an excessive amount of compensation to the point that they are destroying their own industry are bad. Amen to that Podunk, amen to that.

I know it sounds like I'm talking out both ends now, but believe me I'm not so blind that I don't understand your point.

I'll ask you this, Who would you want building the plane that flies your family to it's next vacation spot?
A well compensated worker, one who does his very best every day, or one that is paid a wage that they think is good enough for a certain quality of work?

Airline companies are offloading maintenance on their aircraft over seas, been there and seen it. Egypt, 50 guys lined up outside the fence waiting for work first 20 get the jobs, repair it to the best of their untrained ability and the plane goes back into service.
Myself, I would rather see a well compensated American worker perform the maintenence.

Last GM Strike was in 1998, would you work for 1998 wages? or would you want things such as improved medical benefits, better retirment packages, increased wages and the like?

 

I really dont care?


If the Union shop means an extra 15% in cost, I would take the discount airline.

 

If the UAW took a $10.00/hr. pay cut, do you think GM, Ford and Chrysler will drop the price of their vehicles $3000 to $5000??

Is the union to blame for the bland vehicle designs for the past 20 years??

If China starts importing cars, will people buy them like they have bought toys, strollers, baby cribs etc. that have been recalled in the millions??

The automotive plants in Mexico are run like the US plants were before unions. Employees threatened, waste dumped out the back door, etc.

Research the way many Toyota workers in the south feel about their jobs. Many are not too happy with the way they are treated. http://www.uaw.org/news/newsarticle.cfm?ArtId=450

 

Try doing your research from a different source.





Im just kind of assuming that the UAW website might not be a good source for an unbiased opinion.

 

They won't listen. Remember, a union is the devil.

 

Probably not. But there'd be more money for the company to spend in engineering, product improvements and redesigns. More money to spend on buying higher quality parts and widgets for guys like you to screw in place.

See above.

Probably. Who knows, the Chinese may turn out a decent product. They may look at the US auto industry and see what's wrong, and not do what what us Amurricans doing. That'd be a big step forward no matter where the vehicles are being built.

Source? I figure Mexicans would be thrilled to screw stuff together for like five bucks an hour, when they were probably getting a dollar an hour or less for whatever menial job they had before auto manufacturers rolled in country.

Ha. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

You might wanna try an unbiased news source to support your argument.

 

We can all go round and round how we feel about Organized labor.
It has it's pros and cons.






biglabor.com - unionist web site with access to valuable information
Show Us the jobs.com Tremendous amount of information and tools to keep the loss of jobs on everyone's mind until the problem gets fixed.
MarkFoire.com Always great animations
CNN.com Lou Dobbs - Always Talkin Bout Jobs
Economic Policy Institute - Source for Economic Information
Opensecrets.org - Source for political campaign information
C-Span.org - Keeping track of what is going on in Washington D.C.

 

Actually they haven't yet. Seems like the major Chinese manufactures are copying American and European designs, I.E. BMW sueing them. Also, their copied designes are cheaper because they're not engineered correctly and thus reciece a 1 star crash test rating. Plenty of videos on youtube to back this up.

 

Ok, it has been 24 hours and 5 pages and yet not one pro-union person has answered my questions. Here they are again, let your union pride shine and give me a real answer not this canned union boss crap.

Higher wages for yourself don't count. The consumer doesn't give two whoops in hell for what the guy making the product gets paid. They just want the best built product for the least money.

 

More often than not that theory backfires.