I Was Illegally Fired for Trying to Unionize Tesla
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Overall it looks like 2/3 of auto workers are unionized? And the split is the Big 3 versus everyone else. And it looks like the big difference is pensions. And the fact the the Big 3 make shitty cars and ginormous trucks that make little sense to me.
An interesting article about the BMW plant in Spartanburg SC finds fault with both UAW and BMW. That's the plant where I heard rumors that the German BMW workers threatened to strike on behalf of the South Carolina workers, partially to also protect their own situation though. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/06/spar-s06.html
I would also love to learn more about unions and workers' councils in Germany, as they sound less antagonistic with management while still managing to look out for workers. I wonder if something like that could work in the US. Either way, investigating either of these topics would be a major undertaking.
UAW benefits sound great but I sure would not be proud to work at Chrysler.
From a quality perspective. Tesla makes the shittiest cars.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-reliability-model-s-3-...
Chrysler has no EV models. Chevy has the Bolt. Ford will be offering compelling vehicles but not in any numbers for a good while. As far as other legacy automakers, it looks like Hyundai and Volkswagen group will be eating everyone's lunch.
Musk is the richest man in the world right now (on paper.) Whatever the costs of allowing unions in his factories, I think he can probably handle it. Most of his problems are of his own creation, like his insistence on pushing hard for more automation when they hadn't been able to sort out their existing automation issues.
Unions are extremely common around the world. In the late 60's, something like 30% of the US workforce belonged to unions. Now it's barely above ten percent. The drop correlates well against middle class wealth, which has plunged steadily, again, since the late 60's.
You then go on to describe how they necessarily assume an adversarial role. Trying to link the fall in union popularity with the class divide is laughable... look to the change in Fed monetary policy and the point at which cash gets injected into the economy - that is where the gulf occurs: access to funny money financial instruments and the transfer of purchasing power from the base of the power structure to the very top through inflation.
Unions fight for these worthless assholes as if civilization would crumble if they weren't given equal pay and benefits.
Eventually you lose your best employees because working with a permanent unfireable set of worthless coworkers is unbearable, and the department fills with people who put in the minimum amount of effort needed to not get canned. They all get fixed yearly raises based on a minimized cost of living increase that currently is waaaaaay less than inflation. Even talking about anything merit related that might result in a discussion about some people getting paid more than others is taboo, to the extent that one risks getting ousted by the union by doing so.
If a company wants to have a culture in which quality of individual work and personal drive are rewarded, they should treat unions like the plague.
Unions represent a race to the bottom for certain industries. Menial labor is different from creative work - your star package handler is not contributing to value in the same way a star engineer with multiple PhD and industry certifications does. If you eliminate the ability to reward people commensurate with the value they bring, they'll find a different occupation and communicate negatively about your company to their peers. Or they'll drop their level of output commensurate to whatever their coworkers produce sufficient to avoid unemployment.
Unions are not the best tool for all workplace related issues. Particularly with regards to the concepts of merit and work ethic.
I wish this unfortunate byproduct of American anti-union campaigning would stop. The US example is far from the only one and it is fanned by its bipartisan politics that have poisoned the well of cooperation we all can take part in if we just dropped the desire to crusade in anger.
I am also American and I have seen both sides.
I've seen this play out repeatedly and inevitably in 30 years of work. Unions are an anachronism, and we need something better.
American unions are an unholy hybrid of faux social activists and lobbying factions who use "the plight of the worker" as a political bludgeon. Locally run unions devolve into cults of personality and high school style cliques, rendering political clout and social prominence to otherwise non-contributing members of society.
We don't need non governmental bureaucracies rewarding the stupid, incompetent, and lazy with pensions, benefits, and job entitlements.
Maybe instead of blaming unions for your current situation, ask why haven’t you left your current job?
I want nothing but the best for people, but I also don't think people should sneak through life and profit through the exploitation of arbitrary rules and the ignorance of employers about the exact nature of a job. The way I see it, you should be reimbursed for your work commensurate with the value you bring to an organization. I find myself in that situation, with good compensation and benefits. I joined a team of unionized people who talk a great game, but are mostly play acting at the work, and are not interested in raising the expectations or quality of work. I rocked the boat and have been taken to task numerous times for working too fast, or too much. For making the others look bad. For completing projects that were intended to be left undone as bargaining chips during contract negotiations.
I am a little resentful of the fact that they take home as much as I do. It also upsets me when people are shitty to employers. The job itself is meaningful and the work is good, the management is excellent.
The problem with unions isn't the state of things when everything works out to the benefit of everyone, including the employers - those situations can and do happen. The problem is when awful people are in charge and see the situation as an opportunity to exploit the employer and beat the system.
Unions give such people unwarranted and more or less permanent power, without recourse.
We're all human beings, all of us. We all deserve dignity.
I haven't said anything at all about their worth as human beings. What I take issue with is their behaviors - laziness, ignorance, deliberate stupidity, and the idea of being entitled to employment regardless of your contribution to the value of the employer. Unions protect the worst kind of people - occasionally they can get it right, but it is clear to me that unions are an inferior and woefully insufficient tool for labor issues. In the US, at least. I've no doubt many other countries get it right. We don't play by sane rules in the US.
The problem I see is that the barrier of doing that was raised by business regulation, the result is that there sometimes isn't where to walk off to.
Very insightful comment. Quick question though: how has the drop of middle class wealth correlated with the share of women and minorities in the workplace since the 60s? Do we draw conclusions against that correlation as well?
Another correlate, and IMO more compelling, is the size of the labor pool. Over the time frame you cite, the domestic and international labor that could viably compete for jobs grew massively and nonlinearly relative to production and end demand. In other words, an oversupply of labor was and remains a big drag on wage growth.
automation cost < labor cost
to
automation cost < labor cost + cost of union rep declaring "I'm the captain now"
automaton cost today < cost of never automating because the union won't let you cut jobs
Nothing would make me unionize faster than a boss whose delusion is so thorough he has convinced himself it’s his work alone and not the team which has brought the product to life.
Glass door seems to rate Tesla well and I doubt Tesla managed to game Glass Door but no one else has.
weird to assume glassdoor is 100% immune to being gamed.
Uh, gaming GlassDoor is pretty common practice. A not-insignificant number of companies tie either carrots (small bonuses) or sticks (a condition of continued employment) to employees leaving artificially-positive reviews on GlassDoor. It tends to be symptomatic of the same sort of environment where illegal union-busting tactics would be totally normal.
Is it not true? That it is illegal to fire but that the repercussions are almost nothing for the company?
I see they are trying to make far harsher laws against this in some articles but for now it seems a mess no?
If you want to understand laws of _other_ countries you would have understand lot more laws and precedents for those laws.
Anything you "learn" from drive by political skit is garbage.
It is a comedy show, but it's not there to educate you on these subjects. It is there to pique your intrest, and to inform you that an alternate way of looking at the subject exists, and you should go learn more about it.
Edit: re: "investigations"
This isn't investigative reporting. You could have put the information in this segment together sans comedian from your laptop with probably 20 minutes of googling. It's all well known facts that are out there that he's bringing to the surface.