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Originally Posted by RawAlex
Lenny, airlines and car companies are interesting choices. In both cases, they are industries where the existing "big guys" are all suffering because of thing they have given during past labor negotiations.
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I disagree totally.
The reason GM is losing money is because of bad management. They put too much faith into gas guzzling SUV's and when oil prices spiked they were screwed. Same thing with Ford.
The car companies that are flourishing right now are the ones that got into hybrids early and whose normal lineup of cars are fuel efficient.
The Japanese workers have very strong labor rights and wages, as do the American workers who work in the Japanese factories here.
Southwest and Jetblue both have a unionized workforce yet they remain profitable.
The legacy airlines are still using circa 1960 business models built around the hub and spoke system. That's why they're losing money.
There are plenty of major retailers in the country who have a unionized workforce and they remain profitable.
If the government would do their job and raise minimum wage to 8.50 an hour then I'd agree that a union probably wouldn't be necessary for a company like Wal-Mart. However this congress and president won't do that because they're in the back pocket of companies like Wal-Mart.
So I think the workers should be able to get together and bargain for wages collectively.