On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 14:08:22 GMT, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"Carl Byrns" wrote in message
.. .


I disagree. If anything kills manufacturing in the US, it will be
union workers pricing themselves out of the market. Locally, we had a
very established business where the rank and file struck for higher
wages, despite knowing the employer was already fighting off a
diminshing market and offshore competition. You already know the
results- the business folded and the tooling went to- China.

With a good Chinese worker making $0.80/hr., and with productivity in their
better export-oriented plants and shops running perhaps 2/3 of ours, there
was no other possible outcome, Carl. The business would have chiseled them
down as far as they could, pocketed whatever they could, and then gone to
China anyway in a few years. That's happened in several industries over the
last 5-10 years. The forces that would make it necessary to go to China
because you're paying $20/hr. wages are the same forces that would make it
necessary if you were paying $10/hr. wages.

Not so. The business in question made railroad oil lamps and their
number one customer _was_ China. Oops.

You have to ask yourself why this is happening. If NAFTA and China trade are
supposed to leave the high-end jobs in the US (they're even supposed to
*increase* the number of high-end manufacturing jobs in the US, according to
their supporters), why have average manufacturing wages, adjusted for
inflation, declined by 7.6% in the US over the last 25 years or so? There's
a pattern, and there are numbers, and they fly right in the face of the
free-trade doctrine.

Wages have declined because they were too high!
Ed, I worked in an all-union car parts factory for 18 months. The
waste of time and talent was incredible- a janitor makes as much as a
skilled machinist, despite the fact the janitor contributes absolutely
f*cking nothing to the output of the factory.
Only a $50 dollar an hour electrician can screw in a light bulb- if
anyone else does, the union will file a grievance, may stop work in
the plant for a day.
I saw guys guzzle a couple of quarts of Bud for lunch and then go back
to work assembling transmissions. You want to be the lucky new car
owner that winds up with that gearbox? The factory couldn't get rid of
these guys- the union didn't see a problem.
There was one guy who, thanks to a change in job description, was
making 60 grand a year washing cars between coffee breaks and nap
time.

One of the in-house newspapers it was noted that $400 of every car the
company sold went directly to paying retirees. Four hundred bucks of
the customer's money buys the customer nothing at all!

Did you know that UAW workers get paid during a layoff?

The US car companies can't compete with Korea, and, as you say, China
with such cost burdens.

Hyundai is building a world-class car for far less than anyone else
because the company doesn't answer to any organized labor and has no
hidden costs to pass on to the buyer.
In case you haven't noticed, their sales are way up.

Just last week, a large factory announced that it was closing- idling
1200 workers. The jobs are going not to China, but to Singapore.
It's hard to feel sorry for these workers- they were getting big bucks
and bennies for assembly line work and they wouldn't consider even a
small pay cut to stay employed.

How much would the next "small pay cut" be? Where is this headed? China and
Singapore are improving their productivity at a scorching rate. We ship
entire factories over there now, along with managers and trainers, and they
often wind up duplicating the productivity of the former US operations, or
nearly so, in less than a year.
So, how far down are you willing to let
wages go to compete with them? Maybe $2.50/hr?

Which is worse? A reasonable pay cut now, or unemployment in the
future? So far, the unions seem to find some kind of nobility in
striking themselves out of work and then feeding off unemployment or
welfare.
Maybe you find it amusing to watch these guys go fishing with their
bass boats while you go to work. I don't.

Go down to your Chevy dealer in a couple of months and take a look at the
engine in the new Equinox SUV. It's made in China, complete. They're
starting to ship them to Canada this month, to be installed in the SUV's and
shipped to the US.

Are you ready for that? Do you have any experience as a hospital orderly? It
looks like a good job for the coming years. g

And when GM starts closing US plants and those poor, underpaid, UAW
workers start sucking at the welfare tit- are you ready for your taxes
to go up again?

-Carl