Comments on: Busting Up The Unions

By: redbank1

redbank1 — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:19:18 +0000

the uaw is not killing ford motor co.

By: Earl Capps

Earl Capps — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:43:00 +0000

Confused … Wal-Mart, telemarkets and Satan are the Un-Holy Trinty. I’m certain of it.

By: confused

confused — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:37:52 +0000

at least we can both agree to the true source of all evil: wal mart.

By: baker

baker — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:56:46 +0000

Fair points, Confused.

I’m not denying that wages (and retirement packages and whatever else) in Detroit have something to do the mess US auto-makers are in. But the historical view of labor/industrialist relations, I think, suggests that it’s really complex. Over time you’re going to see power struggles and pressures play out one way or other. Whether it’s real pressures of internationalization and Wal-Mart pushing companies to lower costs or simple desire of owners to reduce labor costs or whatever else, there is inherent conflict….has been for a long, long time. So, I don’t think unions are wholly good or bad.

Again, I just don’t understand this ideological fervor against them.

By: Earl Capps

Earl Capps — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:01:27 +0000

Red Bank, it’s nice to have someone like you telling me what I think. Why don’t you find that Red Bank bar, have a few drinks and cool your hatred of those who disagree with you.

Love me, hate me, understand me or not – I had the cojones to say what I said, without making a personal attack out of it, while putting my real name with my comments. You outta come out and say the same.

Oh, while you’re doing all the digging that tells you so much about me, you might want to find some published research of mine into deceptive corporate communication practices. Not only did it present unflattering information about how organizations such as Enron deceived and destroyed, but it won a gradaute research award.

That is if you have the ability to put together rational thoughts at all, instead of hateful misinformed rants.

By: Red Bank Worker

Red Bank Worker — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Back to Red Bank Bar, he must forget that most folks don’t work for a big corporation like Dilbert. They work for small and medium sized businesses, where the boss actually knows your name. The bottom line isn’t that majority rules; that’s the case today with secret ballot elections.

The point is you’re foolish if you don’t believe that each worker’s opinion matters when joining a union. Card-check agreements let union organizers pick and choose which workers to talk to and which ones to avoid.

If you think it’s fair to for only half a workforce to know about a union organizing drive, then oppose the bill. If you think it’s fair that all workers have a say in a union organizing drive, then support the bill. Sometimes in life, the choice really is that simple.

By: confused

confused — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:59:15 +0000

baker, i understand your comparison, but disagree with it inasmuch as the textile industry has been deep sixed more as a result of internationalization, whereas the auto industry is in the tank because it’s saddled with ridonkulous union contracts, has utterly failed to respond to market forces and buried itself in collateral business efforts which failed to enhance and even detracted from their core mission. it’s simplistic, i understand, but you can’t get around the union aspect of it. when fork lift drivers make $100K, something’s skewed in your industry. unless you’re wicked smart on the back end and can make a product you can sell at a premium to everyone on the planet, you can’t overcome those kind of silly labor costs.

By: Crooner

Crooner — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:42:07 +0000

Good debate, people.

It seems to me that the burly one’s fear is that if we have unions in SC then the manufacturers will move their plants to another state where they can get workers for less wages and benefits. Talk about misnomers. Our “right to work” state is really the employers right to fire your ass for any reason or no reason at all, for the most part.

And hasn’t confused noticed that Toyota lost money last year?

By: baker

baker — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:15:49 +0000

Confused, it would seem that unionized and non-unionized industries are having trouble. Just at the automotive manufacturing industry is heavily unionized, Southern textile were generally heavily UN-unionized. How are they faring?

I think we should be careful not to assign black-and-white answers to big and complex questions.

By: confused

confused — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:55:15 +0000

dear friend red bank bar, i ask again: has not the single biggest unionized industry been declining for years, culminating in a recent crash/burn (not to mention getting passed by a non-unionized competitor for sales)? how are unions good for the country?