Driver on the roads, GM strike;

[vacerator]

The way some people drive, I just wonder how they are productive at all on their jobs. Too slow, or too fast, weaving over the lanes, speed up, slow down, or leave way too many car lengths so they can text. Not caring if I have to wait through an extra light. Put the darn phone away and drive.
GM has cancelled health insurance coverage for all striking workers. Now this is legal, as their contract has expired, but it is playing dirty. Workers have health issues, and children. They have nothing too lose now. The US labor force continues to shrink, and their jobs are still evaporating. They may as well hold out for the best contract for those who will remain long enough to retire.
I suggest you watch the Netflix documentary on Faijyu glass in Dayton Ohio. The Chinese firm which reopened the idled GM Moraine Assembly plant. Many on the job injuries, and unfair conditions. The jobs pay half as the GM jobs did. Par for the course in other sectors of our nation as well today. They almost joined the UAW, but Faiju gave them a $2 an hour raise not to vote it in. Still collective bargaining.

 

[askolover]

VW Chattanooga voted against going union.  VW was expecting them to vote it in and was willing to work with the UAW since all of their other plants worldwide are unionized. 

My neighbor works for some company that's contracted to do work at Spring Hill Assembly (aka the Saturn plant).  They are crossing the picket lines.

 

[vacerator]

Yes, I'm aware

Greg. I realize the mindset is different in the south. If a labor force feels prosperous, why would they vote it in? There isn't a need yet. In Europe, the unions are structure for the industry. They all take vacations at the same time by occupations and skilled trades.
Some here view unionism as communism. I do not. Some of them have never been lucky enough to earn very good money. However, I view it as having been instrumental in helping grow our former working middle class. Companies in unionized locales mostly paid at parity with one another, union or not. That was called the trickle up effect. Burroughs business machines for example. Their people had nearly identical pay and benefits as others. That was prior to any globalized foreign competition. My brother, a journeyman electrician left US steel 2 years ago for a GM engine assy. plant here. Better pay, and conditions. US steel has not updated, improved, nor maintained any integrity there, despite workforce concessions since the 1980's. There is no solidarity when scabs cross picket lines. They obviously are afraid there are no other jobs in their fields.
Of course, a company must remain competitive in order to sustain itself and it's workers, hourly, or otherwise. Fayju glass has already severed most or all of the former salaried Gm people they hired since opening in Dayton. Some of them refer to it as F.U. glass. That's what they did to them. There are also those in business and Govt. who would just as soon make it illegal for any workers at all to even take a vote to unionize. Now that's Totalitarian communism if you ask me!!
The world has changed.
The jobs aren't coming back. Further automation, and artificial intellect will even erode manual labor jobs in China, etc. People will need to train to use their brains instead of.

 

[vacerator]

Chinese workers

are brainwashed form youth, and treated like slaves more or less.

 

[mattl]

No contract, no work, no insurance -- what's hard to understand about that?  The GM folks knew they were the strike target long ago,  plan ahead and save some money to pay COBRA if you really need it.  As my brother said today  - he's a Teamster rep - pull the kids out of contact sports for the duration or get Cobra.

 

My dad worked 40+ years for Buick we went through many strikes, you learn to go with the flow.

 

[askolover]

Daddy worked for Reynolds Aluminum - they were in the ABG Union.  I remember them going out on strike a few times but it was always settled before he had to walk the picket line.  He made enough money that my mother was a stay at home mom til I was grown.  My older sister and I never rode the bus.  Fortunately for my mother...my sister and I both were band geeks so we were in all the same functions together.  

I wish just one of the major hospitals in Nashville would unionize...we'd all benefit from it.

 

[iheartmaytag]

As Norma Rae would say U.N.I.O.N.

My dad worked for Boeing for 30 years.  There were strikes along the way, but they resulted in the better for the workers and their families in the end.

The "Scabs" Non-union workers that crossed the picket line still benefitted from the union contracts without the sacrifices. 

 

Now in this world, with this economy, we have to stick together.  We can't afford for everyone to fend for themselves. 

 

I support the UNIONS.

 

[firedome]

the decline of the unions...

over the last 60 years parallels the decline of the middle class, the decline of defined benefit pensions, and increasingly expensive healthcare, and that's no coincidence.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Sorry guys, this thread is being marked as offensive now repeatedly as it is getting too political for the Super Forum. All political posts need to go into Dirty Laundry.

Thanks everyone!