Many of the big companies are firing a pretty large chunk of their workforce. Five thousand here, 10 thousand there and pretty soon itbegins to add up. If the company can get along without them now what were they doing before?
The unions are raising Cain (or somethingsimilar) and are threatening to take the wholecompany out on strike. I guess they haven’theard that they can easily be replaced byworkers in some foreign country that will workfor a fraction of the U.S. wage. The massstupidity of the union bosses has always amazedme. Today they have almost no chips to play andthey say “all in? Boys, this isn’t TexasHold'em. They can wipe out the entireworkforce.
When I was in Seattle recently I spoke withsome of the guys on the Boeing picket line andI was amazed at their attitude. They seem tothink the world owes them a living and theyhave the “right?to maintain their current lifestyle. They are in for a shocking surprise whenthey find their job being sent to China to aworker who makes 60 cents an hour with no car,no house and NO benefits.
If you are a union man you hate what I justsaid, but the facts are there. From what I seethe standard of living in the U.S. is going tocome down. OK, you hate me, but killing themessenger will not solve the problem.
In order to stay in business companies mustbe able to justify labor productivity costs of $25an hour. The guy standing next to you (maybeyou) will be replaced by a more efficientmachine and your union better help the companydo it or there won’t be any job at all. No onewants to throw you out on the street, but ifyour company can’t compete they go under andyou hit the bread line.
People must understand this is now a worldmarket and competition is no longer limited towithin our borders. The competitor for the jobyou are doing is not a guy in Milwaukee orPortland; he is in Asia or Russia. U.S. andEuropean countries are sending work abroad notbecause they want to, but because they have toif they want to survive.
China has millions leaving the farm andheading for the big city because that is wherethe money is. Their government is as concernedabout unemployment as we are. Whatever theyearn in the city sweatshop is more than theyhad on the farm. Those workers don’t havehealth insurance, vacations with pay, SocialSecurity (or any other kind) and definitely nounions, but they are glad to be working.
Politicians will promise you 2 turkeys in the pot and 2 cars in every garage, cheap gas,retirement on full pay and all kinds of goodstuff. Wake up. It is not possible.
Your adversary is not in the boss’s office.Your competition is outside the USA. It is timewe recognize this is a world market.
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Copyright 2005