Quote:
Originally Posted by dippin
The first column in the second table is manufacturing as share of GDP. So manufacturing is 13% of the American economy, and 12% of its workers are unionized.
In Hong Kong, the destination of so many companies that are leaving, manufacturing is responsible for 38% of their economy, and 22% of their work force is unionized.
In Taiwan, another favorite destination of American Business, has 38% of their work force unionized. And nothing compares to the Nordic countries. 20% of Finland's GDP is in manufacturing, and 75% of its work force is unionized.
The reasons why manufacturing employment is going down in the US is related to 2 things:
- Productivity and hours worked
- healthcare costs
- ease
It is simply easy to relocate abroad, and no amount of union busting is going to make American salaries competitive with salaries in India, Taiwan and so on. Similarly, while other nation's governments foot the healthcare bill, American business pay for healthcare here that not only is the most inefficient of all developed nations, but also the most expensive.
And finally, while elsewhere improved productivity has led to a reduction in hours worked, here, partly because the employees are so powerless, hours worked have actually increased. If you have people working more hours and being more productive, you will need fewer people than before to produce the same stuff. On a per hour basis, even Norway and France, highly unionized countries, are more productive than the US.
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Thank you. Something for me to look into more.
I've been a union member at a few different facilities for over a decade now. Can't get a job in my field without joining one. Never thought they were worth the money they take from me each week. Every place I've worked has had a strong dislike/distrust between the staff and management. I've seen too many bad employees either protected by the union or have procedures in place that make firing an incompetent/lazy employee almost impossible. I've been denied positions based solely on seniority and not on ability/skill to do the job. I've heard too many union reps do nothing but trash talk management at the drop of a hat. Heard too many contract negotiations break down over wage increases and very rarely over any other issues. I've filed many reports over staffing issues and equiptment issues and nothing has ever become of it.
I was one of the first new hires at a place after a protracted strike. The temps wouldn't talk to me because I was a regular and the regulars wouldn't talk to me because they thought I was a temp. That facility was still dealing with the after effects of the strike 3 years later. They lost a good number of long term and experienced staff because they took temporary jobs during the strike and ended up staying at the new places. The facility had a very difficult time finding new employees and most of the ones they hired had little to no experience.
I haven't had many positive experiences with unions.