“The news is now out that Government Motors is recalling 1.3 million compact cars in the US, Canada and Mexico to fix power steering motors that can fail. Does this sound familiar? Well the big difference with Toyota is that GM has not made the media headlines anywhere, and certainly is not attracting the attention […]
Archive for the 'Unions' Category
Feb24th2010
The Economist lists the Union payoff:
Mr Obama has revoked some Bush-era executive orders that unions hate and issued a few they adore. He has appointed union insiders to top jobs, allowed Congress to add “buy American” provisions to the stimulus bill, risked a trade war with China to please tyre-workers, let other trade deals wither […]
Sep3rd2009
The New Yorker has an eye opening look at life inside the New York Teachers Union. It’s a must read for those still in denial of the very real problems the teachers union cause.
Full article here.
Here is a small quote:
These fifteen teachers, along with about six hundred others, in six larger Rubber Rooms in the […]
Jul28th2009
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Why the “Buy American” campaign is just another union power grab and should be ignored.
May18th2009
“The Obama administration’s behavior in the Chrysler bankruptcy is a profound challenge to the rule of law. Secured creditors — entitled to first priority payment under the “absolute priority rule” — have been browbeaten by an American president into accepting only 30 cents on the dollar of their claims. Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers union, […]
May4th2009
“Which brings us to the real question, which is, when did it become the government’s job to intervene in the bankruptcy process to move junior creditors who belong to favored political constituencies to the front of the line? Leave aside the moral point that these people lent money under a given set of rules, and […]
Apr22nd2009
“Nominated for New Hampshire’s Teacher of the Year, Hampton Academy teacher Christina Hamilton received a layoff notice — by cell phone — the same week. Kevin Fleming, grievance chairman of the teachers union, tells the Portsmouth Herald, “Even though she is recognized as a candidate for Teacher of the Year, they have to go on […]
Apr1st2009
The Problem With Pro-Union Legislation
Published by in Economics, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Unions. 0 CommentsIs that it pits minorities against unions:
Nonunion contractors and minority and female workers fear that they could lose out on major construction projects funded by the economic stimulus package because President Barack Obama has issued a directive on contracting that favors union labor. An executive order that Obama signed “encourages executive agencies to consider requiring […]
Feb11th2009
“Another cause of long-term unemployment is unionization. High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy. Also, those who lose high-wage union jobs are often reluctant to accept alternative low-wage employment. Between 1970 and 1985, for example, a state with a 20 […]
Feb10th2009
“President Obama has issued an executive order that permits federal agencies to require union labor for work on federal contracts. This is good news for union workers, bad news for non-union workers, and bad news for taxpayers, who will pay more for what the government buys on their behalf. In my judgment, it is bad […]
Dec19th2008
“Detroit needed to do a lot of things in the 1970s. It needed to get better engineering, it needed to get control of its assembly process, and yes, it needed to lower labor costs. But it did none of these things. By the early 1990s, Detroit wasn’t even trying very hard to make a profit […]
Dec15th2008
“There is absolutely no way whatsoever that GM has any hope of profitably making a car with labor costs higher than their competitors. Their labor costs should be lower than their competitors, because they have to sell their cars at a steep discount. Even if we somehow magically revolutionize the management tomorrow and get them […]
Dec12th2008
“What needs to be done is to help the automakers get a fresh start and allow them to focus on producing good cars rather than trying to juggle their books to meet past obligations. The US car industry will not be shut down, but it does need to be restructured. That is what Chapter 11 […]
Dec11th2008
“When gas prices were high, a lot of people blamed Detroit’s troubles on the fact that they hadn’t learned to make awesome small cars. But Toyota isn’t so successful in the US because of the Yaris and the Corolla; its core business, like Honda’s, is American-sized sedans, station wagons, luxury cars, and so on. […]
Dec10th2008
“The old GM slogan of “a car for every purpose, a car for every pocketbook” can’t work any more. Back in the 1920s, or even the 1960s, making cars was itself a specialization. Cars were made in Detroit, carpets were made in Georgia, and the two would trade with each other. But now there are […]
Dec2nd2008
Megan McArdle, blogging at The Atlantic, explains how much of the blame for why the big 3 built big cars can be placed on unions:
One of the things you hear over and over again from critics of Detroit, especially ones from the left, is that their current woes are all management’s fault because they kept […]
