Labor Unions are Part of the Problem at GM
On the drive into work today I heard a couple stories on NPR about the General Motors layoffs–talk about the UAW biting the hand that feeds them! On one hand they criticize GM management for falling marketshare; on the other hand they get in the way of GM stopping the bleeding until 2008. The labor union’s contract, which expires in three years, not only prohibits GM from closing plants to save money, but also keeps up laid-off workers’ salaries until they 1) find new jobs, 2) get rehired by GM, 3) retire or 4) die. Now that is a severance package!
Therein lies the problem. Labor union entitlements are pulling GM further down the drain. Since when did your employer owe you a certain lifestyle? They pay you to do a job. If you do not like it, or do not think it is enough money, then get a new one. While I am in favor of due process and anti-discriminaton laws, I think that a job is something that either party can walk away from at any time. “Hey, I found a better job and the best part is that it pays twice as much.” “Thanks for your hard work, but we can’t afford to pay you anymore.” The current mentality at GM has the labor union cutting off their noses to spite their faces. If the ship goes down, we all go with it.
I had another entry to post, but I can’t remember what it was about. This article says it was posted at 11:59 pm on 11/22, but in reality it is early morning on 11/23. That part about “On the drive into work today” made me back date the post. Illolibro, do you remember what else we talked about?
The labor unions in the auto industry have doomed it to failure years ago. My grandfather retired from GM and my cousin currently works for Ford. My grandfather has never had to pay for health insurance since retirement until the most recent attempts to address the huge pitfall they’re in, and my cousin got a good chunk of her salary for most of a year while she was laid off (but she only work for 2 years before that!). That’s the way to make a profit, tell employees that you don’t have enough work for them to do, but make sure they get paid non-the-less.
Big labor is the biggest faux working man story I’ve ever seen. The only working that going on is how I’m getting worked over every time I pay for anything that a union has touched along the way. At least quality of work matters and they weed out the inefficient and lazy workers….oh, wait, I’m thinking of Taco Bell.
Ha ha, I’m glad I’m not the only one who has continually bad experiences with Taco Bell employees. At first I thought that it was just Chattanooga, but I’ve experienced it too many other places. When our local one does get good employees, they don’t stay for very long. Go figure.