Originally Posted by
macflyer
I wont argue the exact fact with you here as it would take months and we might never see eye to eye. But you even you surely understand that management of a business has every incentive to run a successful one. They are not, normally, people who dont understand what they are doing. In case of the automaker they were crippled by cost, the cost of the unions. There is no justification why a janitor at GM should make 30 or more dollars an hour or when he is laid off he should have 90% of is salary paid to him regularly. These costs were the contributer to the automakers lack of ability to adapt to a new and more profitable line of product. It is that very reason why, toyota, a non unionized company, is leading the industry as is jetblue in our industry. After all, America is the birthplace of revolutionary technology. Look at our products of war, second to none.
What specifically killed GM was the negotiated and
mutually-agreed to pension and healthcare benefit for former workers, both UAW and non-UAW alike. Besides, shouldn't you appreciate the fact these workers negotiated the best possible compensation package for themselves...or is that praise limited to individuals instead of collectives? Besides, if GM management knew such benefits were going to be unsustainable, they had a fiduciary responsibility to refuse signing a contract with such generous benefits. You can't put the failure of the auto manufacturers solely, or even primarily, on the union...there's way too much "blame" to go around on that.
Toyota has only had major manufacturing operations in the US for 20-25 years, whereas the Big 3 have been entrenched for nearly a century with generations worth of former employees. Toyota and other foreign manufacturers also located their plants in areas which traditionally had little manufacturing (southern Indiana, Kentucky, Tennesee, Alabama) where labor's standard for compensation was lower than in Michigan.
Same goes for Jetblue; as a start-up airline they weren't faced with legacy airline costs related to multiple generations of employees (both management and labor) pulling high salaries and retirement benefits. Following a rapid expansion which largely left behind the "Jetblue culture" and entering a period of slow growth and/or stagnation, watch and see if their costs don't skyrocket...and if the next attempt at pilot unionization passes.
You may not be a sheep and an idiot...but the world isn't as clear-cut as you believe it to be, either.