GM workers
before the big strike in the mid 70's were deliberately sabotaging transmissions.
My friends dad's failed on his Buick Sportwagon also. He told us his dealer told him that.
Sabotage is wrong. Unhappy buyers go elsewhere. Satisfy the customer. The union negotiators see the company books. The better the bottom line, the better the contract they can negotiate. Two way street.
Before I became a manager at my company, my boss told me all the company owes me is an honest days pay for an honest days work, no benefits, no paid time off, no contract, no perks. If you want those, you become a manager.
I asked him if he felt that way before he was one. No reply. He hated the union, but was in it also once.
Of course I disagree'd with him. Those who do the grunt labor are just as important to any company.
This was during the Reagan years of union concessions. He bough Subaru's, even though the dollar had surpassed the Yen in 1984, and bought more car made stateside. This was before Subaru built the Indiana plant of course.
He said it was worth every dollar because it wouldn't fall apart. I informed him that US automakers were buying cheap Japanese steel which had rusted on the way across the ocean, so the poor quality wasn't all the fault of the unions and labor.
We all got what we paid for. Companies wanted cheap labor, so they outsourced. When we were buying foreign, the money went off shore.
That led to a decline in the average standard of living, so many spend less today because they don't bring it home. It's a two way street.
If you pay people well, and provide good benefits and they have quality lesiure time to regroup, they are happier. They spend more back into the economy.
