Nissan Corp. bullying American employees.

falconfixer

In my last position in aviation we had a unionized workforce that turned the wrenches. When they went on stike because $34 an hour wasn't enough money, the salaried folks had to step in and fill the roles of aircraft mechanics. By day 2 production increased 42% and we flew more sorties in the 8 week period than ever before or since. True story. Unions can go **** themselves right out of existence.

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daisuke149

IMO there are 2 problems with Unions.

1. the big ones spend most of their time working to justify their existance and think that membership, size etc are whats gives them prominence. They need to flare up in size and in places where they are needed and then leave when they have done their job.
(P.S teachers unions need to gear up. teachers need more pay.. why do we always cut eductation funding first..wtf)

2. Most works now days just arent really motivated. You have a union to protect you... come in, be lazy, work slow. Unions should do better to identify when workers are being efficient, motivated etc and make that a part of their membership. US auto workers get paid more than the european ones and were around 35% less efficient (i believe those were the numbers in a study a few years ago)

As in Falcon fixers example. Alot of these arent really super skilled jobs. Which means they need to put in the effort to stay employed and stay relelvant (be a good worker, efficient, not lazy) instead of having a union to sit on. Unfortunately, its the unskilled workers that also need the most protection from constant turnover.

Jordo!

Fair enough -- unions tend to create "wage compression", meaning that they tend to leverage earnings closer to white collar workers (although, note that some white collar jobs -- such as teachers -- also have unions...), but the end result is typically that more people have a shot at earning a decent living, so I get what you are saying, but its hard for me to fault that as a general principal.

Frankly, even salaried workers (and the entire service industry) should be organized -- its just primarily a blue collar production oriented beast by nature.

BTW, by shifting the work to you guys, the aviation company saved themselves money, no doubt -- but did you guys at least earn overtime?

It's a tug of war -- the primary purpose of organized labor/collective bargaining is to have a mechanism by which to tug things in the direction of the workers. It doesn't have to be a good vs evil thing... but a mechanism by which more people can earn a decent living is probably more good than not.

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falconfixer

Straight time after 45 hours.

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SouthArk370Z

There are good companies and there are bad companies. There are good unions and there are bad unions. I've worked for companies where we laughed at the union organizers that showed up and I have been a union (OCAW) rep at places where a union really was needed.

It works great when the union and the company realize that they are not always enemies and when both sides try to increase the bottom line for everybody. But either side can throw a monkey wrench in the works. I've seen too much greed on both sides of the table.

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Jordo!

Ergh... well that kind of sucks, but at least you guys were paid for your time, and not just had extra work piled on, which frequently happens in organizations if they lay people off.

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Chuck33079

It could be worse than the UAW. My dad spent a big chunk of his career working with the Teamsters in trucking on the East coast. Some of the stories would turn your hair white. It's some Sopranos **** for sure.

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Jordo!

Right. But you can evaluate specific metrics like compensation, profits, etc and its not as if corporations and unions (or even union bosses) are equally winning.

UAW really cut their own throats during the auto bailout in terms of public image (and actual effectiveness), but an anti-union sentiment rarely results in better pay or working conditions for anyone -- except the bosses, who are quite few in number relative to everyone else.

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RonRizz

A lot of good, valid points made here, some not so much. I am a Superintendent for a Commercial Contractor, and we hire through the local union hall. (where I came up through). We get 20 or so guys on a job, and if they are not up to snuff, or slack off, we send them back to the bench, and pick up fresh ones. Noone is lazy, leaning on shovels, ect...... If you do, you're out. Simple as that. I have worked in open shop for many years before joining the union as well, and have seen first hand both sides of the coin. The union has changed my life for the better in many ways.
A local family owned brewery (which happens to be Americas oldest) Was a union shop since its inception, after the owner reached Billionaire staus on the backs of union labor, he built a new brewery in a nearby town, and when the union contract was up recently, told his employees that if they did not cut ties with the union, he would shut the brewery down, and put them all out of work. I know more than a few people that worked there, 2 of which took early retirement over it.
Good and bad on both sides... Don't stereotype all unions over the actions of a few. To the hard-core Anti-union, I say you're welcome for weekends off, overtime pay, 8 hour work days, and the hourly wage you now get from your employer. Without organized labor, you would have none of these things today. Open your mind, and let each man chose his own path.

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MacCool

Unions have indeed given us all of those things. They have also given us higher than necessary prices on many domestic commodities and manufactured goods, significant world trade imbalance, movement of entire industries off-shore, loss of countless domestic jobs, closed factories, bankrupted cities, a severely ailing educational system.

As you say...pluses and minuses.


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RonRizz

Greed is a horrible thing, indeed.

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MacCool

Indeed it can be. Greed by corporations, greed by unions. Plenty of greed to go around. It's an occasional-but unfortunate byproduct of capitalism, the foundation of the US economy. Fortunately, there are laws about that now. Yes....thanks in large part to unions, from back in the days when they were more useful than harmful to the US economy.

SouthArk370Z

From my POV it's not really a Union or Company problem but a people problem. If you have "good" people on both sides of the table some pretty wonderful things can be accomplished - the company and investors make money, the workers get a higher standard of living and better working conditions, and the local economy benefits. But it only takes one bad apple.

Much like buying a car, it's very easy to slip into adversarial positions.

While there are some unions that do more harm than good (UAW and Teamsters come to mind), from what I have seen, unions, in general, are still very valuable. There are still too many companies (the people that run them, actually) that would abuse employees if given half a chance. Certainly not all, but enough.

If nothing else is good about unions, they have been able to dramatically better safety in the workplace. Companies end up spending a little more for hazard/injury prevention but reap the benefits of fewer injuries (much lower expenditures, less lost time, better morale, &c). Win/win.

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Dustin@Z1

As a former Nissan employee I cannot stand the idea of a union. Carlos Ghosn is HARDCORE anti-union as is NML. Ghosn has already spent a great amount of money fending off the unions.

The problem is not "Nissan"...it is the subcontracting company Yates and Kelly services in my opinion. Plants like Canton Mississippi consist of predominantly "Yates" contracted employees. These are the ones who are seeking Union representation. Smyrna is majority "NISSAN" employees, while Decherd is a mixed ratio of Yates and Nissan.

As a Nissan employee, the treatment by the company is AWESOME. I enjoyed working for the company every minute I was there and have nothing but great things to say. However, the Yates side of the company is lackluster in my opinion.

Dustin@Z1

I recall seeing DOZENS of employees on my shift rocking "Anti-UAW" shirts and decals on their personal vehicles in the parking lots.