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BMW to UAW: You Suck!
This commercial from BMW is an awesome F*CK YOU to the UAW and all
unions. While the Big 3 were all in bankruptcy and getting federal
bailouts, BMW spent a billion dollars expanding a plant in South Carolina. Last I checked, most of these employees are non-union. Oh yea, and BMW - a luxury automaker - is actually profitable, and still was, even during the crisis.
GM, Ford, Chrysler, friends (or frenemies) of the UAW? Saved only by
the largess and questionably-legal bailout actions of the Government*.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfB5QSLuhcQ]
Apparently, some workers at the plant want to unionize. Their rationale is, as almost always the case, retarded.
Ok, perhaps that's too harsh. At best though, their rationale is
painfully ignorant of things everyone should have learned by high
school, if not earlier. Ultimately, as always, the rationale comes
down to whining about how the firm has reduced benefits, asked more
from their workers, etc. Big deal, it happens in every industry,
especially when sales are down and unemployment is up. If you don't
like it, quit. There's millions of un/under-employed people who'd LOVE
to get paid $25/hour and get full benefits to do your job!
This one comment on the BMW forum thread illustrates some of the
main the reasons why I am absolutely, positively anti-union (so long as
a country has decent employee protection laws), emphasis mine:
I've worked with union workers over the years; my dad
was a in a trade union all his working life. However, I've seen the
downside. I've been to a place where it takes three people to
change a simple part, because it required a plumber (for a simple air
line), a mechanic (for two screws) and an electrian (for one electrical
connector). This is not an exaggeration, but something I personally
witnessed. Or, I've been yelled at for moving a pallet truck
that someone left in front of the machine I needed access, so I broke
union rules and moved it five feet. Also, I've seen companies unable to
get rid of or even punish unproductive or damaging employees, again
because of the unions. All the while watching unskilled labor getting
paid significantly more than me. So don't mind me if I don't shed a
tear for you. I live in a right-to-work state too, but I believe in
earning my keep.
I'm not saying ALL or even most union employees are lazy and
overpaid, but I, too, have witnessed hundreds if not thousands of times
union employees slacking off, to put it mildly. Union rules and
collective bargaining (etc) create perverse incentives and not only
allow, but mandate waste and inefficiency, like in the above anecdote
and my painfully countless personal experiences.
Critics (almost if not all of them union and union-affilianted) of
right-to-work laws say unions protect workers rights and result in
employees/members getting better wages/benefits and that their work is
of higher-quality than that of non-union labor. The first assertion is
true, but it just as much - if not moreso - a criticism of unions than
an endorsement. Unions artificially drive-up wages and benefits while
decreasing employment.
I think claims that union employees producer higher-quality work on
a timely-schedule without cost over-runs versus non-union labor are
probably grossly over-stated. If I hire and train an employee, how
does his membership in a union in any way, shape, or form affect how
good he is at his job? Is the argument that higher-paid union labor
with better benefits work harder than non-union labor that supposedly
has lower wages/benefits or something? I don't think I'm buying that...
Last I checked, the BMW Spartansburg plant employs thousands of
non-union employees who all work there voluntarily, as in, they agreed
to do the job, the pay, the benefits etc that came with it. No one is
forcing them to work there for whatever they're getting paid. And the
pay/benefits aren't that bad from what I've read. $24/hr to work on an
assembly line with no college education (plus any overtime) in that
area isn't that bad, especially considering the lack of required
education/experience/skills and the investment therein and the fact
that you probably drive a BMW for alot less than non-employees. BMW
also gives employees at the plant some pretty good benefits, standard
fare for non-union employees:
- Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental and vision plans
- Short-term and long-term disability benefits
- Life insurance
- 401K Retirement Savings Plan
- BMW Pension Plan
- Associate Car Use Program
If they don't like how much they're get paid in cash or benefits,
they can ask for more. If they can't get it, either stay and deal with
it or try to get another job that'll pay and give them the benefits
they want. If they can't get a raise/get more benefits at their job
nor find another one that'll give them what they want, then guess what:
They're not worth any more than they're already getting and should be
thankful to have a job at all!. If you want to make more, go get some
more skills/education and stop your fucking whining about how
management is screwing the "hard-working" employees.
Please, if you work 40-hours/week , if you take a cigarette/coffee
break 10 times a day, if you have an hour for lunch, if you check
Facebook/Twitter/whatever a dozen times a day, if you spend more time
in the break room or around the water-cooler than you do at your desk,
then you're probably not working that hard at all (unless your job
involves doing such things). Instead of whining about people who DO
make more than you, do the work, get the
skills/education/experience/network you need so you can get there
yourself! Otherwise, shut up.
Unions encourage people to do the least they can get away with doing
until it's time to collect their pensions (that's probably unfunded,
screwing over younger workers paying into it), which are not-unlikely
to be over-inflated because of manipulating later-years wages upon
which pension payouts are often based. I know of union employees whose
pensions are based on their final-year's salary, so they work a ton of
overtime that year et voila, artificially over-inflated
pension! I don't think most union members do this, but the fact that
they can get away with such things is yet another mark against unions
in general.
Here's an interesting question: why don't people in the Financial
Services industry unionize? Why isn't there a Back & Middle-Office
Employees Union? How come there's no Financial Analysts &
Investment Bankers Union? What about a Hedge Fund Employees' Union?
How come there's not even a Bank Teller & Clerk Union? Perhaps its
because many if not most if not all people in Financial Services
understand it's a meritocracy (well, to some degree), and people are
more attracted to higher wages/benefits that come with raising up the
ranks than those that are the result of union extortion/blackmail, er,
I mean, collective bargaining.
I've read the academic research and the "studies" from both sides
here, and while these arguments presented herein are admittedly
oversimplified, I think one would be hard-pressed to challenge most if
not all of them, although I appreciate constructive criticism and
discussion.
*I'm not solely blaming unions for ruining the Big 3, not hardly,
management decisions since the 1950's ranging to making promises they
had no way of keeping (ie defined benefit pensions), letting the
bean-counters run design/engineering, etc all contributed as well, each
in no small part.
- advertisements -
Mulally kinda' slurped in what? like $23BB of credit lines b4 tshtf. Where did he take "bailout" money? Of course, F did have to bend over to the UAW contract stuff(ing).
Wondering?
- Ned
Stop trying to let businesses off the hook and putting all the burden on those who work for them. This article reads like it was BMW/Southern shill.
Until they start locating in the Free North, this really means nothing. Honda located itself in Ohio, and certainly isn't hurting.
That, and unlike BMW, I can get more Detroit metal for the same dollar versus the equivalent BMW. That, and General Motors has made some good stuff despite the irrational hate for them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHozLw6f5rI
u go girl!
- Ned
I'd buy a Corvette, Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, Mustang, Viper (RIP) or an Escalade, but besides that, nothing really exciting to me from them (trucks are another story for another time). I don't even like BMW among the European brands (more an an Audi fan), but GM doesn't make anything that compares to BMW (except the CTS).
Why does this mean nothing simply because they're in a right to work state in the south? How does that matter? The point is that Unions are parasites, parasites who've shown that they don't understand that when you kill the host, the parasite dies along with it.
BMW should sponsor my blog Bavaria for Ron Paul.
Best whishes to Spartanburg from Munich!
One only needs to review the history of British Leyland in the 1970's to see how worker-unions-run-amuck can help destroy an entire country's automobile industry.