Unions
-
-
I agree with most of the article. Unions had a very important part in the early days, but not so much any more.
An interesting line which seems pretty obvious:
While unionized plants pay higher wages and benefits than do nonunionized ones, they also "experience higher rates of closure, reduced investment,...
Of course, if a company has two plants, and they have to pay workers more at one plant, then it would make sense (at least to the company owners) to invest more in the other plant.
There can be a tendency to drive business to the cheapest plant until those workers "revolt" and then it moves on to another factory.
I have read stories about how the economic level of the factory workers 50-65 years ago was higher than it is today. I think that is a reason that manufacturing in the US will be difficult to come back. Workers are always cheaper somewhere else.
-
I agree with most of the article. Unions had a very important part in the early days, but not so much any more.
An interesting line which seems pretty obvious:
While unionized plants pay higher wages and benefits than do nonunionized ones, they also "experience higher rates of closure, reduced investment,...
Of course, if a company has two plants, and they have to pay workers more at one plant, then it would make sense (at least to the company owners) to invest more in the other plant.
There can be a tendency to drive business to the cheapest plant until those workers "revolt" and then it moves on to another factory.
I have read stories about how the economic level of the factory workers 50-65 years ago was higher than it is today. I think that is a reason that manufacturing in the US will be difficult to come back. Workers are always cheaper somewhere else.
@taiwan_girl said in Unions:
I agree with most of the article. Unions had a very important part in the early days, but not so much any more.
An interesting line which seems pretty obvious:
While unionized plants pay higher wages and benefits than do nonunionized ones, they also "experience higher rates of closure, reduced investment,...
Of course, if a company has two plants, and they have to pay workers more at one plant, then it would make sense (at least to the company owners) to invest more in the other plant.
There can be a tendency to drive business to the cheapest plant until those workers "revolt" and then it moves on to another factory.
I have read stories about how the economic level of the factory workers 50-65 years ago was higher than it is today. I think that is a reason that manufacturing in the US will be difficult to come back. Workers are always cheaper somewhere else.
Oh, no doubt. I’ve shared the Pittsburgh mill stories on this site many times. An entire region of Western PA, the Panhandle of West Virginia, Southeast Ohio, and Western Maryland are still economically depressed from the outsized influence of labor unions in the 70s and 80s.
-
Apple's first unionized store is striking, because of the sweat shop style conditions, or something.
https://fortune.com/2024/05/12/apple-store-strike-vote-first-workers-union-towson-organized-labor/
