You seem to be well versed in union/management issues but you omit the fact that management also uses scare tactics to deter union recruitment. I've seen people threattened with being fired for discussing union issues inside a non-union business. At my wifes place of employment management wouldn't allow the union to have a post board to place their issues to inform represented workers, until they won a court challenge with the NLRB.



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If you're so palsy walsy with GM's management, why has GM laid off 50% or so of its workers in the last 20 years?




Easy my friend. One word. Automation. The last 20 years have seen robotics intergrated into many material handeling processes. For example, we have machines assemble core packages that were traditionally done with human labor.



It isn't all gloom and doom for organized labor. In our area theres been a few completely new plants built by GM. The plant I work in has been awarded 80 million dollars to produce the next generation cast aluminum truck engine block. We were in competition with a foundry in Mexico and Brazil for this specific product. If the UAW was such a burden to GM, why are they keeping this work inhouse? You can believe what you want, but the bean counters at the crystal palace have no allegiance to anyone when it comes to awarding new work, the bottom line is cost.