Strike!

Time to get political!

The big news around here, of course, is the big UAW strike at GM.  Only two miles away is the Lansing Grand River assembly plant that manufactures Cadillac STSs and CTSs.  I drove by the plant after work and saw a smallish (50 or so) group of protesters lining the road.

The general consensus among my Michigan white-collar acquaintances and seems to be that it’s ridiculous that these workers, who get paid (so they say) 50k-100k are complaining about benefits.  I agree.  With such a low cost of living around here, 50k can easily support a household.

Furthermore, it seems silly to me that the autoworkers are creating a fuss when their own industry is in trouble.  I don’t think it pays to squabble while other companies take your market share.  All of us non-union people in world live constantly with the fact that our jobs could be outsourced or given to an undocumented worker for cheap.  The solution isn’t to create conflict, because the other party is just going to find ways around you.

Not only are they facing stiff competition, but the entire industry itself could disappear if gas prices get so high that no one can afford to drive.

Back in the 1930’s/40’s and maybe 50’s you could make the case that since the large manufacturing companies were the employers and the local population was the source of employees, that the companies could exploit their workers.  Thus it was necessary for workers to work together and represent their interests if that exploitation occurred. Today, it hardly seems an issue. I can move to Montana and mine coal if I really want to. Our society is much more mobile. We’re not tied down to a single town. And neither are private enterprises. Today, it’s easy to train some people in Mexico or Asia to build your cars and ship them across the sea into the US. The trend towards more globalization is only going to continue.  There’s really nothing you can do about it.  While isolationists sit around and protest, the world is moving on without them.

I think part of the problem is that people have come to expect a certain standard of living.  We worry about our jobs getting shipped overseas, but what about those people overseas?  Don’t they deserve a chance?  Can’t we find something else to do instead?  What happened to American ingenuity?  Obviously, we need to make sure that the companies in Asia are treating their workers fairly.  Hey, there’s a job for the union bosses - go do some consulting in China!  But apart from that, there is no reason for us to block globalization - we need to move on. It’s in the world’s collective interest.