Originally Posted by
iahflyr
....That comment about all the problem coming from subcontractors is just some union wrench turner who is mad because his overpaid union job got outsourced to someone who can do it cheaper and better.
Labor unions need to be careful to not set their wages outside of what the market will bear, otherwise their jobs will go away. The UAW is a perfect example. Unions should be there to support their employee's, not demand ridiculous wages.
Cheaper yes, better no. Have you even read about the mess that Boeing has with Alenia's ****-poor quality control?
They are having to re-work almost every horizontal stab they have received from them. They are planning to bring the manufacture of the horizontal stab in house for the 787-900.
While Italy is a bad example of low cost non-union competition (they're just as unionized and unproductive as France), how are workers who live in America (and have the associated higher cost of living) supposed to set their wages to what a global market can bear? The cost of living in China, India, SE Asia.....etc prices American workers out of the market. What then is the answer? Outsource everything? All American workers live in mud huts and eat rice so we can work for the same wages as the Chinese? We now build hardly anything because of this globalization BS. In the end, the entire country is weaker for it.
What is the solution? I have no idea, but its not so black and white that unions are exclusively the problem.