The trade union helped the workers demand better working conditions and benefits. This in itself was understandable. The workers also had the right to enjoy a better life. This was all right!
But the problem was that unions in the United States had already broken away from the essence of unions and became similar to the existence of gangs.
In the early days of the unions, they were good. They helped workers get rid of the 12-hour work day, 6 days a week. They helped them get the minimum wage standard, which was the agreement that the standard hourly wage should not be lower than the local standard of living.
They also made the company prohibit discrimination against any workers, including discrimination against people of color. These were all huge contributions.
To describe it vividly, they helped all the high-tech employees of the so-called high-tech companies get rid of the 996 and let them return to the normal 955 era.
And the way the unions won was by going on strike.
But gradually, the unions found that the factories were so afraid of going on strike that they were willing to pay more amazing benefits.
For example, as long as the union leader found a way to stop the strike or directly extinguish the next strike, the union leader would be able to own an apartment in New York with a dozen beautiful blondes living in it.
Or directly receive a large sum of money, equivalent to the money hundreds of workers earn in a lifetime. These things made all the union leaders instantly degenerate. In order to maintain their positions, they even gradually became gangs.
In 1957, all the big gang leaders in the United States met in New York. Among the 56 people present, 22 were union leaders. Wasn't it very funny?
Then, were the union leaders the only ones who were bad?
No, many workers were bad. Generally speaking, people who joined a union had to pay 5% of their income as membership fee.
But from then on, they could start to work and live "without worries".
After becoming a union member, it was equivalent to having an iron rice bowl. Even if they should be eliminated, the company would not dare to fire them.
According to the actual footage in the internal documentary, the workers who joined the union when they went to work.
"Every day, they come to play crossword puzzles."
"Watch the videotapes or read the newspapers brought by colleagues, or just sit there."
"Some people even bring work from another company directly to the office to work!"
But even so, these workers still received the full salary and benefits. They had become parasites in the factory.
If a worker can create profits for the company, then they should receive corresponding rewards and benefits.
But if they didn't create profits for the company but still enjoyed all the benefits and salaries, wouldn't that be equivalent to sucking the blood of other hardworking workers?
The most frightening thing was that many workers were very pure and hardworking when they first entered the factory. They were also very willing to work hard for the company.
However, when they saw that some people didn't need to put in any hard work, even if they had to lie down for a day, they would earn the same amount as them, or even more.
These workers would either leave in anger or join the union if they couldn't win. They would join the union just like the other workers and live a good life of lying down at work.
A few years later, professional reporters conducted interviews and calculations, and finally concluded that the workers who received high benefits but did not do anything added $1,200 to the cost of each car.
In 2007, the average annual salary of General Motors workers in the United States was $141,000, Ford $146,000, and Chrysler $151,000. The average annual salary of workers in these three major automobile companies was more than $140,000. In the same period, the average annual salary of American university professors was $96,000.
In order to protect the high salary, benefits and jobs of their members, the Automobile Union did not allow the American automobile companies to reduce the benefits of their workers. They also did not allow them to lay off workers.
Not only that, but the Union also prohibited companies from restructuring their businesses or introducing new technologies to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Ford had originally planned to introduce an assembly line with a brand-new technology. This assembly line could increase work efficiency by more than 80%, but it only required 60% of the original number of workers.
This would obviously increase the company's profits. But when Ford announced that they were going to introduce this new assembly line, the Union immediately organized a strike. The reason was that if work efficiency increased by 80%, but only required 60% of the workers, then 80% of the workers would lose their jobs. (I don't know how 80% was calculated)
In the end, Ford was forced to give up on introducing this assembly line.
The same was true for the electric car technology. Because electric cars were simpler and required fewer mechanical parts, if electric cars were introduced, they could also reduce the number of workers by 40%.
Then, the Union stopped them from introducing electric cars. The reason why the United States did not support electric cars was not because the leaders were stupid. It was because the Union was too terrible.
Lastly, there were layoffs. Through the Union's agreement with General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, if the company had to lay off workers due to heavy losses, the laid-off workers would receive 95% of their original salary with the same benefits and no time limit. Therefore, the work that could be done by one person required a few people to do, and the efficiency was extremely low.
Which company would dare to lay off workers unless they went bankrupt … but bankruptcy was not an option. Didn't you see that the Union was protesting to stop the company from going bankrupt?
Of course, the Union and workers had to pay a price. In history, Chrysler went bankrupt and was acquired by Italy's Fiat Group.
In the end, Fiat closed all its factories in the United States and either sold the relevant technologies and production lines or moved them back to Italy.
With a change of owners, all the agreements with the Union no longer count. Even if they count, Fiat will not pay them. Only idiots will pay them. I'm not afraid of you going on strike!
In addition, although Ford and General Motors did not go bankrupt and reorganize, they were determined to shut down their factories and fire their workers. They did not care if there was a strike. In any case, they were close to stopping production. If the workers went on strike, so be it. They only needed to keep the workers who did not participate in the strike.
After the financial crisis ended, more than three million workers from the three automobile manufacturers lost their jobs. After that, these workers could not find another job. They could only rely on their savings or the government's food subsidies to survive. In the end, the place where they gathered became the famous rust belt, paving the way for the rise of a certain leader in the future.
As for the unions, their total number of members had fallen from its peak of five million to less than three hundred thousand. This was because when companies were recruiting people, once they heard that the other party was a member of a certain union, they would immediately cancel the contract without any hesitation.
Although the Union eventually gave up, it was a lose-lose situation. The workers lost their jobs and can only wait for death. On the other hand, the companies lost their market and their lives.
General Motors had also fallen from being the number one company in the world to its current state. They had to sell almost all of their car brands to barely survive.
This is a lose-lose situation.
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