North American Unions are at it again

I came across an interesting article on paultan.org concerning all of the North American Union debacle. It's a really good read.

UAW Rallies Outside the Detroit Auto Show
United Auto Workers members and supporters rallied outside the Detroit Auto Show that’s going on this week in protest against lowering their wages, which are higher than non-unionized assembly plant workers that work at foreign automakers such as Toyota.

Workers and supporters who attended the rally carried placards with slogans such as “I’m not a foreign auto worker”. They also claim that they “work damn hard for their money” and that claims that UAW workers make so much more than foreign competitors is a lie. I think these guys are confusing the whole foreign automaker workers thing. The people who work for foreign automakers also consist of Americans, it’s just that their bosses, or even their bosses’ bosses originate from another country.

Besides the point, even if they want to comparing yourselves with foreign auto workers, does being American have any advantages when it comes to a blue collar worker putting together cars? Are foreign auto workers somehow less adept at doing this and thus deserve to be paid less? Do they deserve less, and you deserve more, simply because you are not “foreign”? If you are so valuable, why are you working on a production line?

They say they love GM as much as everyone else but in September 2007, a year where GM lost an average of US$3.2 billion a month, the UAW launched a massive strike which left 80 GM plants having to shut down, just because GM had failed to meet the UAW’s job security demands during a negotiation. “No one wants to see GM go down the tubes. But we have to keep our standard of living, and GM is going to have to cooperate,” said UAW picketer Jim Brown.

As for the wages, let’s look at some figures.
For the rest of the article, follow the link;
http://paultan.org/archives/2009/01/12/uaw-rallies-outside-the-detroit-auto-show/