Ok People It Is 2010, Is There Still A Need For The UAW?

Maybe I am wrong here, but this rhetoric is the same tactics used for the last 50 years.

I would think by now that "IF" there were tremendous injustices then corporate lawyers would be all over it. Shouldn't the shareholders hold GM executives accountable, not a third party that has a vested interest in making money?

Invisible - That is called a vote. At the rate things are going now 4 years are the max for him.

Ugh, what is it with you people and this fanatical free market ideology? It is just as bad as communism. The result is the same- weak middle class and therefore a weak country. We need parts of both, capitalism and socialism, to have a strong system that works. It was what we had until Reagan took over.

ps. When will the free market clean up the gulf oil spill?

DinamoR, I'll trade you my Canadian citizenship for your American citizenship. Trust me, we'll both be happier...

no, if a worker is worth more than what they are paid, then a companies competitor will hire them for more than what they currently make. All the UAW does is provide job security and high pay for those who aren't worth it.

Noble effort, but the problem is the UAW is also utilized many of the suppliers of companies that are not union. So say you buy a non union made Toyota, chances are that many parts supplied to them are union made.

In general I agree with Joe Limon on this one. They had a role but it has passed.

BMW workers have a union, why GM cannot?

Toyota vw group BMW and Mercedes all have unions so what is the point.

My late great grandfather was a successful business man and he was anti union, although he was very fair, unlike most business sociopaths, he also was American, and said to always buy American, to help the economy, Eventually all of the out sourcing is going to hurt us, In a perfect world we don't need unions, ie, no union dues, but from the companies side I can see them opposed naturally, maybe they should give them 5 year contracts without the unions and pay them what ever less the union dues and work as a team? Unlikely,lol Teams work best.

Unions, like almost anything in life, can be good or bad. Depends how much power they have, so they need to be kept in check just like everything else, from banks to health insurance companies.

The reason I don't take the anti-union people seriously is because those are the people who gave us the economic collapse with their pro-corporate anti-middle class anti-government regulation nonsense that led Wall Street and big corporate interests rob us blind. This whole so called "free market" is set up as a gambling scheme where if corporations win they keep profits but if they lose we regular people get stuck with the bill. The less power the little guy has the worse it will get.

Unions also mean democracy in the corporate world, because corporations are set up like dictatorships with a CEO who has total power. Unions give the little guy, the worker, a say in things.

But I agree that unions can also get out of control and abuse their position to demand unfair wages etc.

I second that.

Anyone bets that "UAW-LAX" blogger will let us all know, "we can't live with out his union fellows". I'm sure they're marking on their calenders for the next strike date. Unions were good in the old days because of the sweat shops; today there are many federal laws to protect against discrimination, OSHA for saftey factors, robotics to do tedious and boring task, etc.

The unions should grow a set and purge the roll of all the life-less blood suckers that they are used to protecting, then maybe this anti-union mentality wouldn't exist.

Do that and we would then have financially viable auto companies IMO :-)

It's really funny to read some of the comments as it pertains to unions here in the United States. It's almost as if some believe unions just sort of magically sprang from the ether with the sole intent of undermining big corporate interest and stealing their profits.

What many of us amnesiacs conveniently forget is that Unions in America were borne out of the abuses and intolerable working conditions perpetrated by large greedy and abusive corporations on its workers. Where for example do most of you think the 40 hour work week originated? Vacation pay? Retirement benefits? Sick pay? Health care coverage? If anyone cares, go to the library and pickup a book on the history of unions, then you’ll know why they are still necessary.

Now what amuses me the most is that the anti-union crowd, have no problem buying up Toyotas built by American workers, by the boatload, enough to fill thousands of football stadiums. Toyota, who employs thousands of union workers in their own home country, has effectively orchestrated resistance to having their American workers unionized. So too has German makes BMW, Mercedes, VW; South Korean, Hyundai, Kia; Japan’s Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. All these transplant manufacturers employ union labor in their own home turf, so unions are good enough for their own people, but NO, not for American workers.

As union membership diminishes in America, the American workers is fast becoming part of the middle third world labor force-not good enough to have unions-but good enough for subservient puppets of their new corporate, global, free market masters, who can call all the shots at their expense while paying themselves 10,000 times above what average American hourly worker earns. Yep, unions are good enough for all these other countries, just not good enough for the American worker.

acronis..... dont waste your time on this subject. These guys understand your point entirely they want to cry about the union becuase they dont enjoy it's hard won benefits.

Well said, the corporations are crushing unions everywhere. No more middle class in the future. Just poor and extremely rich.

From the article: "Anti-union forces are ... motivated by greed..."

It appears to me that the sole purpose of the unions is to ensure that they survive. Self-serving. Self-interested. No value added to the end product, or to the consumer. Union folks behave as though they are *entitled* to their job, and at the rate and with the benefits they define. And they believe that others, who are capable of doing the job and willing to do it for less, should not be allowed to.

Meanwhile, outside of unions, both white-collar and blue-collar workers work under a different set of rules, such as delivering superior value as compared to the competition, making self-sacrifices to keep a job they want, self-development to make themselves more appealing to their current employer than the guy knocking at the door.

Unions live in a world of extortion: Give me what I want, or I'll shut your business down to hurt you. It's not co-operation, nor collaboration. It's not even competition. And how is this not self-serving?

The thought of "saving the unions" is as preposterous to me as the thought of saving the dinosaurs.

steve the UAW has not had a strike in 25 years. Has not had a pay increase in 8 years where do you guys get your info from? If you cared about a business so much why stop trying to get the best deal when buying a new car and pay full price for it to help the company. I see a double standard here.

I see there was no link of your strikes or anything at all to support the really outdatted union knowledge you guys share so I dont take you guys serious at all.

No one wants to address the fact that transplant auto manufacturers here in the U.S. hire union labor in their own home countries but don't want the same for American workers, who are more and more treated like quasi-surfs.

And brain washed Americans easily forget that the uaw made labor rules what they are today because when the rules where left in the companies hands they where very unfair. Just look at what's going on in the plants over seas where ipods are made and workers are killing themselves .

Bloggers - if you had placed your bets that wind bag "UAW-LAX" would be chimming in, we all won then. He's so full of crap because now he tells us all that there hasn't been a strike in 25 YEARS. That's funny, my brother who retired a couple of years ago from Ford Motor Company and worked at the Sterling Heights plant in Sterlings Heights, Michigan was involved in several strikes there. It was about 8 years ago and 1 of the union demands was "longer time for breaks" Poor UAW members could get their coffee in the "short breaks". The reason why bloggers just laugh at you UAW-LAX because you make stupid stuff up as you go. You're a wannabe car enthusiast, who knows just a LITTLE about the automotive industry. "No Strikes For the Past 25 years". Besides reading moronic statements like this from "UAW", I had to listen to my duma## brother talk always say: "As long as we get our iron out". No wonder I've never bought an American made product in the last 25 years. Ooops - I better say 20 years since UAW-LAW noted 25 years for no strikes happening. Get real!!