Getting off the scab list

[Hacker15e]

II will say that I think the airlines do deserve the medal for creating the most toxic environment between the union and management. This absolutely makes it impossible to run any sort of efficient operation, yet year after year, decade after decade, the same war ensues, and at the end, no one wins.

The same can be said about the auto industry too.

I think you both may be casting a pretty wide net with both of those comments.

There are a whole bunch of foreign auto companies -- Mercedes, Toyota, BMW, Kia, Honda, etc -- with successful and profitable factories across the southern US which are nonunion. Although they're no panacea of perfect management-vs-labor relations, they have been operating for decade (s) without the types of toxic relationships you're referencing. And, most importantly, somehow the workers there aren't just being raked over the coals without union representation.

So, I'd argue that it's not the entire industry that is messed up.

 

[ComplexHiAv8r]

Yes, but I know for sure about one Auto in the south that operates as a tax free trade zone so most of the employees don't pay state or local tax (since they are NOT US citizens, just displaced workers from another country). That was another reason why they went south besides just the labor.

 

[Hacker15e]

Yes, but I know for sure about one Auto in the south that operates as a tax free trade zone so most of the employees don't pay state or local tax (since they are NOT US citizens, just displaced workers from another country). That was another reason why they went south besides just the labor.

Which one is that?

All the ones I mentioned employ local labor, and the local towns are quite proud of the company and factories in their towns. I'm surprised to hear you say that one of the factories has "most of their employees...NOT US citizens" -- I would think that would be met with a significant amount of pushback from the locals, both city and state, if that were true.

 

[mshunter]

I haven't read much of this thread, so maybe it's already been said (I hate hearing people bicker about scab lists). But maybe an eaiser solution would be to not get on that list in the first place.

 

[Tebow99]

"Long time listener, first time caller" I'm just an avid aviation enthusiast who doesn't have a dog in this fight but I can see both points of view. The number one controllable cost in any business is payroll, except for the airline industry. Which as i'm sure you all know is now Jet-A. Management and shareholders want to increase margins and drive down costs. It's very simple to reduce pay when there must be hundreds of thousands of wanna be pilots with shiny jet syndrome who will literally work for peanuts. This is obviously where the unions come in. To protect senior, EXPERIENCED pilots who would easily be underbid by noobs.

IMHO, Airline Pilot pay will never again reach respectable levels. The root cause here is the aforementioned "wannabe pilots" who will pay to fly (Gulfstream). It doesnt take a genius to see that a CEO/CFO/COO isnt going to budge when they can pay Wal-Mart wages. Honestly, if I were a CEO and my pilots were willing to work for pennies I'd probably do the same thing.... It seems like the unions are fighting a losing battle.