November 22, 2005 - Big news from GM yesterday - nine plants to be closed and 30,000 employees to be ousted. It always seems to be that the traditional big U.S. companies with a large percentage of union workers always struggle to survive (Local examples include Bethlehem Steel and Bell Labs/Lucent/Agere, and Mack Trucks which closed a local plant in the early 1980's and moved it to South Carolina; that plant has since closed). It's no wonder Wal-Mart is fighting to prevent unionization of employees. While companies without union employees fail too, it seems unlikely that inept management only affects large companies with a big union base, yet the companies with the big union base make the loudest thuds when they fall. Is it the union and their demands that cause these companies to fail? Fair working conditions are one thing, but a lifetime of entitlement for one's family is another. Just as one is foolish to depend on the government for everything, one is just as foolish to believe a company can enjoy good times forever and provide for former employees (and families) for 20-30 years after they retire. Sure, management is no better (see Agere - a company that has never made a profit yet they canned a CEO and he got about seven figures worth of severance). Companies that do this deserve to fail, just as companies that promise their employees everything as short term appeasement then cannot deliver 20 years down the road.

I've never been in a union nor have I ever supervised union employees. When I first got out of college I interviewed with a company and part of the job would have been to supervise union employees. The fact that I never had was a big minus and the interviewer made that quite clear to me.

However, no one is entitled to a good-paying job. One must earn it and work harder than his peers to maintain it.

Another thing that irks me is than when these big companies fail, everyone blames them. Yet, they are constantly hammered by special interest groups with claims of polluting the atmosphere, unsafe working conditions, low pay, high out of pocket medical insurance costs, and so on. People should be thankful that they provide jobs opportunity for people. When they fail it's "where are these people going to work?" yet while they were doing well in their business it was "the working conditions are poor, at best" or "they make a lot of money, therefore, they should give all their employees free health insurance." It's been trendy of late to attack the big oil companies for making profits. Let's see what would happen if ExxonMobil starting losing money. Jobs would be lost. Benefits would be cut. Some brain-dead TV financial analyst would talk about how that would bring the DOW down 20% that month. Then the attack wouldn't be "they make too much money" it would be "how are the ex-employees going to support their families?" Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.