As GM tools up for production of its Volt extended-range electric car, Automotive News has noticed something interesting: workers at GM�s new battery pack assembly plant are not represented by the United Auto Workers. Located in the heart of UAW territory (Brownstown Township, MI), the Volt battery plant represents the very jobs that local politicians and GM leadership hailed as the green future of the auto industry.Wake-up Call
though GM only has 25 workers currently working the Brownstown plant, that number will increase, and the symbolism is far more important than pure numbers. The plant is part of a new wholly-owned subsidiary called GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, and GM spokesfolks confirm that non-union labor was an important factor in maintaining competitive manufacturing costs.
Though electric motor production at Maryland�s White Marsh plant will be a union shop, GM�s biggest supplier Delphi is also taking measures to keep its EV component factory in Kokomo, IN, free from union representation (in line with its new union-free mantra). Kokomo Local 292�s president calls the decision a �smack in the face� for the union, which is facing a decades-long slide in membership.
The UAW calls it a "smack in the face". I call it a much needed wake-up call. Unions helped drive GM into the ground although management certainly deserves a huge part of the blame as well.
Private sector workers have a choice between unions and jobs. When they choose unions, the jobs vanish.
The big problem certainly is not private unions, but public unions. Private unions can only wreck a company or an industry. Public unions are wrecking the nation.
"Union Free" should be the goal of every taxpayer.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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