Quote:
Originally posted by Superbelt
There is also the trucking industry
Service peoples industry
Construction
All heavily unionized, all doing great!
Auto Industry includes Harley Davidson, which is unionized and is doing swimmingly. You can make an argument that the american auto industry is lagging because we fall behind most foreign car companies in fuel efficiencies, and overseas, where fuel prices are much higher that is a terrible disadvantage. Even here our fuel prices are becoming more and more of a factor in the past couple years.
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Harley Davidson is hardly an example of union success. It was not long ago that it was on deaths door. It was the management of the company (non-unionized) who turned it around and it is the 50 year old professional (also mostly non-unionized) who buy the products.
The service person's union is hardly the reason that the industry is growing. It's the mostly non-union people who don't want to do the work themselves that are driving the growth. Look at the wages members of this union are still typically paid. I think the average in Manhattan, New York is somewhere around $30 to $40k. Hardly, if even, liveable there.
Construction is doing well, again not because of unions but because of the purchasers of construction services.
The trucking industry, again, not because of the unions but because shipping is increasing (people buying stuff again).
Now, we can get into why these are the unions who are growing. These jobs can't be shipped overseas. Someone in China obviously can't empty the waste baskets in the Empire State building, build the skyscraper down the block, or deliver the newly purchased refrigerator bought on ebay. Overall trends in the economy and specific industries drive the success of these industries, not union practices.
In the failed or failing unionized industries, corporations could not compete internationally on price due to lower production costs abroad.