Sunday, December 21, 2008
Work Rules
Most union members know that the best way to defeat a company is to obey every work rule to the letter.
With that in mind, they bargain for more and more work rules in every contract.
And, when management gives in, they set themselves up for future problems...
With that in mind, they bargain for more and more work rules in every contract.
And, when management gives in, they set themselves up for future problems...
At Slate.com, Mickey Kaus posts this and more:
"Why have unionized Detroit auto manufacturers manifestly lost out to their non-union Japanese competitors, even when it comes to building cars in the United States--to the point where Congress is presented with a choice of bailout or bankruptcy? There are some obvious culprits: shortsighted American managers, schlocky designers, an insular corporate culture. Here's another: the very structure of Wagner Act unionism. The problem isn't so much wages as work rules--internal strictures that make it hard for unionized competitors to constantly adapt and change production processes the way the Japanese do.
Now that everyone is criticizing work rules, it's easy to forget that they don't represent a perversion of the collective bargaining process--they are the intended result of that process, ..."
