Really? wrote:jugheadnaut wrote:
The real worst of all possible worlds is the situation where there are public sector workers doing unskilled jobs getting 100K a year with overtime with staggeringly generous pension plans.
Seriously, those goddamn unions with their living wages and safe workplace conditions.
What could really go wrong when you privatize what should be public trusts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
I have worked in the auto industry for 30 years. The unions are a blessing and a curse. For sure the unions did great good to secure a living wage, safety, sick pay... etc...etc...etc... We would certainly be in a world of hurt without them.
The down side is that the unions became a political operation in their own right. Workers elect their union bosses. The bosses make promises to allow the workers to get more and more benefits. Many of these benefits directly reduce productivity. So, for a business, the costs just go up and up. Since unions are not interested in operation efficiency you end up with a business that is staggeringly expensive and produces poor quality.
I didn't really recognize this until I had to work as an engineer in a union plant. Of course, it frosted my ass that I work more hours, had to travel on my own time, had worse health care, worse vacation, and lower pay than the union line workers. No regrets, the union work is mindless and boring. But..... it is the union structure that makes it mindless and boring. They basically make it so that a worker can't get cross trained to do multiple jobs. This breaks the union rules. For example, you can't pay a line worker and extra half hour of pay after the line shuts down to clean the machine. A union paid cleaner has to clean the machine. The worker can't be taught to repair or service his machine. Even if he is smart enough to learn, the repair must be done by a guy who has a special union category. So, the machine operator basically waits while his machine has anything done to it. You can't train him to inspect for quality, clean, do setup, minor repair. Ultimately, the operator just becomes an overpaid button pusher.
I worked with one production line that had a very poor throughput. In order to improve the throughput the company told the crew that they would pay for 600 pieces of production every day. If the crew produced the 600 parts they could go home. Suddenly, the line was producing 600 part in four hours (instead of the prior 10 hours). Haha. If I didn't get to the line before 11:00am I would miss the whole day of production. When I needed to run a few trial parts I would have to shut the line down for ten minutes and then startup the line. Since I was fucking with them they would run extra slow. It was always a 12 hour day...even when I had just one ten minute trial. I would stop the line... tell everyone to wait ten minutes, and they would disappear. It was fucking amazing. Ever single worker would take turns going to the bathroom or getting a phone call, etc. This way they would get paid overtime. They were actually pissed they had to work more than four hours. Haha. You have to understand... these guys made $80k, had a pension, bonuses, and health care.
But... things have changed. I guess the auto industry had to collapse before the labor cost problem could be fixed. Most of the plant guys work pretty well these days. I still see the problem with lack of cross-training and the plethora of classifications. The union is often its own enemy.