The Republicans in Congress don't want to bail out the Big Three Auto Companies unless they can break the UAW at the same time.
I don't have that big of a problem with that. I have belonged to 2 unions in my life. The Teamsters and the SEIU. Both followed the model of professional union organizers running the union and handling collective bargaining and the workers having minimal input. Interested workers rising in the union ranks are quickly co opted. These unions were both corrupt and inefficient.
My wife has been a member of a union all of her professional life. It is a different model, where all of the union officials and collective bargainers are working union members. It seems like a better model. Not so corrupt. It has some of the same problems though. In the end labor becomes so costly that the industry can no longer compete and the consumer can no longer afford the product.
Let the Big Three fail and the UAW with them. Maybe none of them is worth saving. Can you really say you'd rather have a Chevy Malibu than a Toyota Camry? Especially when the Malibu costs a good deal more.
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I don't mind seeing some of the big unions get checked sometimes. There is definitely some corruption and the union leaders seem to lose touch with their members.
Still, I think that unions are a good thing. On balance, I think that things are better for typical American workers with unions than without. Even non-union people benefit from the benefits and wage pressures that the unions are able to apply.
I find it laughable that CEO's bringing home incredible paychecks and benefits without noticeably improving their companies blame the average worker for demanding too much money and health care benefits.
Republicans that support big-business friendly policies are the same people that oppose worker-friendly policies at every turn. Unions give the average worker leverage and I think they are very important.
I guess my point is that the people in this country that need advocacy and collective bargaining don't have it and the people that do aren't interested in spreading it around.
It would be hard to find a group of people who vote more conservatively than policemen, firemen and school teachers and yet they have the strongest unions and best pensions and benefits in the country. They have no compassion or solidarity with those who constitute the working poor.
I have known auto workers. As a rule they are militantly ignorant and obstructive. Unions and auto workers bear as much blame for the failure of American auto makers as management and engineering.
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