Posted by Labor Law Guy | Posted on 11-09-2009
Category : Random Musings
Tags: Boeing, California, Detroit, GM, IAM, unions
A Boeing plant in South Carolina has voted overwhelmingly to decertify its International Association of Machinists (IAM) union. Of the 300 members qualified to vote, 199 opted for decertification, and of course, they had been brainwashed by the evil corporate chieftains, according to an IAM spokesman.
“We are frustrated that Boeing did not remain neutral and allow these workers to make a decision free from pressure, intimidation and coercion,” IAM’s Bob Wood said. “Boeing is playing a perverse game of pitting community against community for the most taxpayer money, and pitting worker against worker for the cheapest possible labor, using these tough economic times to take advantage of both. The IAM will continue to be here for aerospace workers in the United States.”
Wood is accusing Boeing of dangling the prospect of building another plant near this one in North Charleston to work on the 787 Dreamliner, but the company (natch) denies any connection between the decertification vote and the location of its Dreamliner plant.
It’s always good to get rid of a union, so who cares if there was a little corporate blackmail? (If you want to know what unions end up creating, take a visit to General Motors or to the state of California–both have been completely devastated by union power- and money-grabs.)
Meanwhile, I’m sure IAM “will continue to be here,” there and everywhere if there’s a chance of getting its hands on more union dues, which is any union’s sole raison d’etre.
Posted by LaborLawGuy | Posted on 12-05-2009
Category : Federal Labor Law, Personnel Concepts
Tags: Banana Republic, Chrysler, CNBC, General Motors, GM, Government Motors, Jim Cramer, Larry Kudlow, Melissa Lee, Obama, Spengler
I work New York hours and live in California, which means I get home in plenty of time to watch both Jim Cramer and Larry Kudlow live on CNBC. While Cramer seems like a liberal who mostly agrees with Obama and his cohorts, Kudlow is a staunch Reaganite supply-sider. Cramer has been virtually silent on the Obamian approach to the reorganization of Chrysler and GM (now Government Motors), while Kudlow has been extremely vocal about how Obama is turning contract and bankruptcy law on its head.
Specifically, the pre-packaged “bankruptcy” deals that Obama has announced for Chrysler and GM force secured creditors (banks, hedge funds, etc.) to stand in line behind unsecured creditors (mainly, the UAW). In a very union-friendly approach to say the least, Team Obama wants secured creditors to take 33 cents on the dollar and unsecured creditors (the union, natch) 50 cents on the buck. A traditional bankruptcy would reverse that arrangement if not in fact award the unsecured creditors nothing or a ticket to stand in line for leftover scraps.
Cramer’s silence has me concerned, but he still offers good advice and insight into Wall Street investing. Kudlow, who’s my favorite commentator on CNBC (okay, Melissa Lee ain’t bad either but for reasons other than sage observations), seems to be drawing a line in the sand over upending the rule of law by fiat, if not downright threats and coercion.
At least one other author agrees (as I do) with Kudlow, and he’s gone even further in describing Obama as a reverse/perverse anthropologist and a “Czar” (quoting someone else) who is turning the U.S. into a Banana Republic where there is no rule of law in the capital markets.
Spengler (aka David P. Goldman) makes for perceptive reading in his “Banana republic law and zombie economics.” Pay special attention to his anthropologist analogy.
Thankfully, there are still thinkers out there who aren’t cowed by White House threats–and still a few writers who haven’t traded in their objectivity for a chance at being part of the Banana Republicization of the United States that they have so long coveted.
Posted by LaborLawGuy | Posted on 11-03-2009
Category : Federal Labor Law, State Labor Law
Tags: Chrysler, Ford, GM, Toyota, UAW
Ford, which is in the best shape of all three American automakers and has not gotten (nor will it seek) government bailout funds, has wrung a deal out of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) to cut costs in health care and in overtime and unemployment pay.
Or is the shoe actually on the other foot?
The UAW has typically struck a deal with one automaker that it then sets up as the gold standard for the other two. By cutting a deal with Ford that leaves pay scales and health care for existing workers intact, the union may be drawing a line in the sand for GM and Chrysler, both of whom are on a federal umbilical court and under orders to cut costs or die.
It’s unlikely that the union, outside of government or courtroom pressure, will go any further in making concessions, even to two firms that may expire of their own decrepitude and obesity. It’s also highly unlikely that the Obama administration will try to force the UAW into further concessions, so it looks like this is a union gambit that could play out for them.
Of course, if GM or Chrysler or both disappear, then all the gambits in the world won’t help.
It should be an interesting side show as the Great American Recession continues.
