Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
- 58,308
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Detroit is a good example of bad union management. That is a fact I saw for myself back in the sixties when I bought a 1964 Pontiac Catalina that had a bad smell in it throughout the first summer. When the driver's side window came off the track and the door panel was removed to fix it they found an empty Pepsi can and the remains of a partially finished sandwich of some kind, which accounts for the smell.They did a wonderful job of growing the middle class in Detroit, didn't they?
What this revealed was a decline in quality due to increasing prevalence of low-life employees whom management was unable to purge due to the wrongful application of union power. While this is definitely wrong it is by no means typical of all unions and it should not be allowed to foster a prejudice against all unions.
And it should be kept in mind that unions are democracies. Leadership is elected and policies are adopted and controlled by membership. Obviously the UAW became infested with low-lifes and the result was the near failure of the U.S. auto industry because of the gradual decrease in quality of U.S. cars compared with the Japanese and Germans.
By all means drastic action must be taken by union membership to weed out the cause of this problem. But by no means should the baby be tossed out with the bathwater. What happened in Detroit is something which can be fixed -- and a properly managed union can fix it. Union leaders know who the problem workers are and they should not be protected.
I have never met a union member I had a problem with. I have, however, met quite a few union bosses that I would cross the street to avoid pissing on if they were on fire. Generally, when I complain about unions, I am talking about the decisions of the management, like the recent strike that put Hostess out of work. Even other unions criticized them for that strike.