we should not only thank the unions for this, but also the trial lawyers, for their dilligence in helping to raise the cost of health care for all companies. good job guys, another 25,000 jobs shipped off to china, to a harder-working, less litigious country.
Well it's cause and effect. The airlines reduced benefits and pension plans, they said, due to the increase in cost of benefits and overall decrease in profits. Litigation and liability has become so expensive for american manufacturers that they simply can't support a local workforce.
I wouldn't call China harder-working. They have a larger work-force, and are simply willing to work for much less (due to a MUCH lower cost of living). I can say first-hand, they are not necessarily harder working. Chinese corporations also abide by almost zero workplace laws, and hardly any exist. Benefits for employees are extremely limited. Bascally, their overhead is a tiny fraction of ours.
Greed and diffusion of responsibility have ultimately turned our work force into failing corporations, angry workers, and whiny bitches.
I don't think that we can completely blame the unions here. I firmly believe that the American workforce is plagued by apathy. The 'market' phrase "pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered" comes to mind. I think that organized unions along with organized government (local, state, federal) are indeed a reflection of the people. We all look for someone to blame and really we can only blame ourselves. How often are you actually satisfied with American services or products? I find myself in a state of awe at the lack of pride that is taken in the quality of work throughout the nation. I know that there are people here who actually do but for the most part the majority seem to be complacent and severely apathetic. How many people who are posting in this thread work in an environment where most of the workforce is riddled with incompetence. Maybe I am way off base and very bitter from contracting with various government agencies that are definitely sucking us dry. Perhaps we need some true adversity to bring us together and give us purpose. Maybe we just need to turn off these damn computers and TVs, throw away the video games and go outside.
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Big unions seem to be an enemy of both the employee and employer now
A good reason for them to be on the chopping block.
Bluedeath brings up good points. As the consumers, we always have ultimate control. I purchase alot of up and coming computer-related hardware from various vendors for business. I've seen products that barely work with poorly written (badly translated) manuals, but they're cheap. We've gotten to a point where quality is expendable, if it means we can get almost-working stuff cheaper. Basically, our standards have fallen. Years ago Americans refused to buy non-American products. Yes it's arrogant, but it was driven by a need for quality. Apart from cars, American products were very well manufactured, and workers were happy. Cars were a major part of the paradigm shift, but Americans were suddenly engulfed in often better, at the time Japanese products. What's happened now is we're so desperate, especially in the field of technology, for cheap cheap cheap. I can't say how many times I bought some gadget and it turned out to be a complete piece of, in most cases, low quality Chinese-made junk. Japanese factories were of extremely high calibur... then Taiwan took over. Taiwans standards were initally low but became the leading semiconductor manufacturer in the world, with good quality standard. Costs got too great (like America and Japan), living costs increased, and therefore wages were no longer competitive with the rest of Asia, especially China. Now it's China's turn... they manufactur cheap while providing very little to their works other than a wage they haven't yet seen in their country. Living costs in China are dramatically increasing, and you can obviously see the pattern here. I should mention that Korea is undergoing the same transformation, about the same time as Taiwan.
I've worked with many Chinese partners, often good friends, American partners, Indian partners, Hispanic partners, you name it. I've found that 8/10, regardless of origin, are far better bull shitters than they are performers. It's amazing to me the human race has gotten this far - I guess a select few have shouldered the Lion's share.
American's got too comfy, feeling our economy was invincible. So, through unions, lawsuits, and unprecendented litigation costs, we're basically destroying it from the inside out. It all could've been prevented, but it really is the natural order of things. There's only so much $ in the world... and with globalization and nominal shipping costs, one can buy materials from anywhere.
Going outside is a good solution
hmm.. would this explain the GM employee price discount for all ?
Unions are a doubled edged sword. In many of the asian countries without unions, it is customary for workers (even white collar workers) to work to have a 12 work workday and they even work on every other Saturdays. They often get fired without notice and the severance package are medocire compared what we get.
Unions are there to provide fair working conditions for workers. Yes I agree that some of the more powerful unions are less helpful and hurt us more than help us. Many of the union workers that should be fired are protected by them and they hurt the employers instead.
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Many of the union workers that should be fired are protected by them and they hurt the employers/students instead.
schools being the most dire of such situations.