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Veteran
Wow, so much to say and so little time. This topic has gone from union to RTW to NAFTA and so on. Lets look at some hypothesis from books I read and my real life experiences.
When NAFTA came to be, I was in the car rental industry. I learned that through NAFTA, cars that were built here were sent to Mexico to have seat belts installed. Believe it or not, in my area the seat belts were the first that needed repairs. Today, I have no idea how NAFTA is doing, nor do I care. I am a few years away from retirement and don't care. Sure it might affect me, but maybe it will be for the better. Manufacturing jobs are declining in the USA and have been increasing in Mexico. Kiplinger's reported this and based on our GDP, these jobs have been on a free-fall decline for awhile now.
http://www.multpl.com/us-gdp-growth-rate/table/by-year
As far as unions, I've been union since 1983 and started in the Teamsters. In 1995 when I was in a public union, we caught sight of a local document that talked about "privatization." You call it outsourcing today. At the time, the blue collars saw it as a joke because it wasn't 100%.
I saw it as they can replace a few services, but they couldn't get rid of the essentials like police, fire, sanitation. Speaking on behalf of a sanitation worker at the time, we knew that the privatizers were squeaky clean suburb haulers. They would not take and dispose of, what we did. Over the years, I view outsourcing as a way to not only rid yourself of unions, but also of lawsuits.
Unions are losing ground, and that has been the case since we blamed Reagan for union busting...do you really want to get me started??? Even if you are in a union nowadays, your union seems to have a corporate knife at their throat. So I can see the RTW gaining ground since why pay dues if you'll end up in the same predicament in the end?
Unions are losing ground and the employer has time on their side. As people retire their jobs are either eliminated, outsourced or given to a fresh employee with less benefits. What I got after 10 years of service, new hires are forced to work until they are 65, regardless their years of service, before they can get their retirement.
I'm off my soapbox, thanks for letting me ramble!
When NAFTA came to be, I was in the car rental industry. I learned that through NAFTA, cars that were built here were sent to Mexico to have seat belts installed. Believe it or not, in my area the seat belts were the first that needed repairs. Today, I have no idea how NAFTA is doing, nor do I care. I am a few years away from retirement and don't care. Sure it might affect me, but maybe it will be for the better. Manufacturing jobs are declining in the USA and have been increasing in Mexico. Kiplinger's reported this and based on our GDP, these jobs have been on a free-fall decline for awhile now.
http://www.multpl.com/us-gdp-growth-rate/table/by-year
As far as unions, I've been union since 1983 and started in the Teamsters. In 1995 when I was in a public union, we caught sight of a local document that talked about "privatization." You call it outsourcing today. At the time, the blue collars saw it as a joke because it wasn't 100%.
I saw it as they can replace a few services, but they couldn't get rid of the essentials like police, fire, sanitation. Speaking on behalf of a sanitation worker at the time, we knew that the privatizers were squeaky clean suburb haulers. They would not take and dispose of, what we did. Over the years, I view outsourcing as a way to not only rid yourself of unions, but also of lawsuits.
Unions are losing ground, and that has been the case since we blamed Reagan for union busting...do you really want to get me started??? Even if you are in a union nowadays, your union seems to have a corporate knife at their throat. So I can see the RTW gaining ground since why pay dues if you'll end up in the same predicament in the end?
Unions are losing ground and the employer has time on their side. As people retire their jobs are either eliminated, outsourced or given to a fresh employee with less benefits. What I got after 10 years of service, new hires are forced to work until they are 65, regardless their years of service, before they can get their retirement.
I'm off my soapbox, thanks for letting me ramble!
