We've got a friendly exchange going on between Mike and Mac at my GM post. Here's a further observation:
Met a man from Pennsylvania a week ago and we got talking about the auto industry situation. I wanted to know whether he thought a bailout was a good idea. He said the auto companies must be restructured and we need to allow at least one of them to go bankrupt. Here's his story.
Said he had a summer job as a student at US Steel. Was working a night shift and he changed a light bulb in an office or something.
All hell broke loose. This infringed upon the union rights of the electrician, who was sleeping in a corner some where. It was apparently well known that the electricians would sleep during the night shift and be unavailable for needed work. Didn't matter. The student was reprimanded for changing the light bulb and the electrician got paid his exorbitant union wage for sleeping.
I realize that a single anecdote does not establish a trend or characteristic. But when I worked at CGE this same kind of anecdotal story was in common circulation. And I suspect it could be multiplied by the thousands.
During the 1980s, US Steel was on the ropes and it looked like it might not survive. It did, but not without an extensive make-over. It survived through restructuring and joint ventures with with both domestic and foreign partners.
If the union had instead investigated and urged the electrician in question to be fired, I would respect unions. But that is not the way they work.
And Buzz, as Mac has noted, is the radical, adversarial, and even ugly face of uniondom.
3 comments:
U.S. Steel is very much still in business.
Noted and corrected. Thanks.
There are numerous instances of large corporations being restructured through bankruptcy. Why should the auto sector be any different?
For instance, several of the large US air carriers went through bankruptcy restructuring and they're still flying.
Someone suggested to me that no-one would purchase a domestic vehicle if the company was restructuring. Poppycock! We're not talking minor manufacturers like Delorean or Bricklin. Even if all three stopped producing vehicles tomorrow, there would still be a huge market for their products and an aftermarket producing parts to support any purchase.
All three domestic producers need to be shaken up, from top to bottom; from CEO to floor sweepers.
It is no longer feasible to maintain so many product lines. Cut them in half... or more... and focus R & D on producing superior products. The unions have to stop playing politics and stacking the membership rolls to encouraging their membership to find efficiencies.
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