the real question is, why are workers not free to form unions without fear of reprisal from employers now?
unions are nothing more than an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of workers. in essence, it is workers assembling together to protect themselves from greedy employers.
i was under the impression that we as americans enjoy the constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly. was i wrong?

Gee, with that logic couldn’t we just half the work week to 20 hours? Then we could double employment, because the evil corporation$ would have to hire twice as many people to do the same amount of work!

Shane the point here is that Union’s have never been free to organize without fear of reprisal from employers. As someone who has worked with the US Department of Labor I can honestly say that Unionization has never gone well for the workers at the start. Go on google and type in “history or Unions in America” you will see the pure injustice that still exists today against unions just because they are trying to get certain rights for workers. People are quick to forget that if it wasn’t for Unions we wouldn’t have weekends, holidays, sick days, time off, workers compensation, unemployment, health insurance etc.

Toyota, non-union, builds cars made in America, by American labor, but is none union. Their hourly cost per employee is about $48. They are selling lots of cars and trucks. They are making money and not about to file for bankruptcy. GM is paying $81.18 per employee, thanks to the UAW. This adds $1600 to the cost of every vehicle they produce. GM is on the verge of bankruptcy. The typical hourly employee of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan makes roughly $100,00 in wages and benefits, before overtime. Why? Because they make good vehicles that people want to buy for a reasonable price, not because they are led by the UAW, because they are non-union plants. The only reason that the big 3 US auto makers and the government want a bailout is that management will lose their jobs if they declare bankruptcy and are bought out by another car manufacturer and the unions will lose their contract because it will be subject to court review under a bankruptcy. The government will lose support of the extremely Democratic UAW if they allow this to happen. The situation is simple contract guarantees by the UAW has led to failure. Incentive pay by the Japanese car makers has led to success and great pay for workers as long as they continue to perform.

Toyota, non-union, builds cars made in America, by American labor, but is non-union. Their hourly cost per employee is about $48. They are selling lots of cars and trucks. They are making money and not about to file for bankruptcy. GM is paying $81.18 per employee, thanks to the UAW. This adds $1600 to the cost of every vehicle they produce. GM is on the verge of bankruptcy. The typical hourly employee of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan makes roughly $100,00 in wages and benefits, before overtime. Why? Because they make good vehicles that people want to buy for a reasonable price, not because they are led by the UAW, because they are non-union plants. The only reason that the big 3 US auto makers and the government want a bailout is that management will lose their jobs if they declare bankruptcy and are bought out by another car manufacturer and the unions will lose their contract because it will be subject to court review under a bankruptcy. The government will lose support of the extremely Democratic UAW if they allow this to happen. The situation is simple contract guarantees by the UAW has led to failure. Incentive pay by the Japanese car makers has led to success and great pay for workers as long as they continue to perform.

It works for the rest of the world - why not USA? Companies expect too much out of employees and not allowing enough family time. It’s about time change has come to help the hard working American family.

Our market is globalizing whether people like it or not. Instead of trying to lobby for more employee benefits (aka making overseas jobs look more lucrative to business owners), invest the little capital you have in yourself. If you get a marketable skill that people need and few others can replace you, then you’re set. There is going to be NO demand for labor in the future. Education is the only hope for a poor kid like me. The voice of the uneducated crying for jobs will be lost in the noise of the Chinese and Indian workers working for a dollar a day.

Not to mention prisoners are doing work for private corporations now (legal slavery). Try competing with that on a free market.

Okay, I didn’t know that the auto-workers had any say in the design or development of the cars they manufactured. How can one even reasonably begin to argue that GM’s poor performance is due to their employees (union or not).

Second, oh lovers of capitalism and quest for personal interest, unionizing is exactly that, a very smart step on the quest to make one’s own life better and more livable.

Third, if we had universal health insurance and pensions then the discrepancies between Toyota and GM would disappear. How good is the Toyota non-union retirement and health care plan?….riding down that 401k slope to the poorhouse.

France just did this. It didn’t work. It pushed unemployment up and slowed economic growth. Why do you think it would work in the US? I make more than $150k…but I also work more than 50 hours per week. I would love to be able to work 35 hours with 6 weeks vacation. But if I did that, I would make less. Liberty involves choices. You cannot make a good income and at the same time have low hours + lots of vacation time. That is the trade-off unless you start your own business and, after risking some money, make it big (which, if you read the other articles you will not be able to do because you won’t be able to keep your money due to the Max wage).

My penis has faced recent and extended unemployment and I must say the most distressing aspect of this has been the failure of the “unions.” If a union had stepped in, there would have been union and the unemployment would have come to an end. It’s not so much that the bosses were pricks. It was more that they weren’t vaginas.

Parick, you are mistaken, Reduced worker hours increases employment. Overtime just increases costs. Europeans get great long holidays. College Kid, you are pretty smart, but there will always be a demand for SKILLED labour–i.e. REAL tradesmen. There’s a shortage of such tradesmen now and the training has been dangerously watered down. Mista, auto-workers–or any other workers in this country and yours– have no real say or sway in the design or production of cars. It is the employers’ right to mismanage or mostly mismanage the factories/businesses as they see fit. As for Yusef, you have too much time on your hands. Go see the Texan and the Steale dude. Maybe they can help you…

With the problem I’ve got, the last thing I want to do is go see a Texan.

This tired concept of creating new jobs as the only acceptable way of securing livelihood for people is not sustainable. It treats the population as a labor pool for capital, but the reality is that today capital no longer needs such a labor pool. Machines replace labor. The people need access to the product of the machines, not some new labor assignment.

The first-world refugee population created by the demise of auto manufacturing will barely be helped by the creation of new jobs. Their cities will still be reduced to ghost towns, their communities destroyed, family ties broken, lives shattered — unless they can somehow obtain an income *without* first making themselves valuable to corporations.

Machines do replace labor; but also third-world labor is used where they cannot. In either case, corporations will not find first-world labor worth their money from an economic standpoint. That era is over. There will be fewer and fewer jobs the more rational, efficient, technologically advanced production becomes. Technological progress today is synonymous with job elimination.

I sure hope Obama understands economics better than the clowns who created this website.

So now we are going to spend a trillion dollars and everyone is kissin butt to get their share but no one cares about the people who need it like the people who live in subways and wooded areas and because they didn’t get the help in time so who are we saving the rich because they should never suffer the slings and arrows of American life..They hide behind politicians and expect more and more and get it…We need to just succeed from this government because I am tired of giving my money away and starving and being homeless as those other folks drive around in the best cars and live in the best houses never thinking of our hunger How about you? Tired of the lies and Do you believe Obama is really going to make a difference..He is still spinning that he won..His family was from Kenya and his mama went to Hawaii and had him and went back to Kenya so does that make him relevent to the United States hard working black population..Mitchelle she is just his seeing eye dog and they spent 13 million on their we made it party….How many black or white children would that have helped…Hav3 some more champagne their Obama and help Oprey find her roots…That was quite a good political con…..She believes in you…What a joke…you fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time.. How many months should we give you before you create the biggest revolution in this countries history… Succeed from the states now and avoid the rush since the states have their own power not federal dictatorship and bogus spending……