AUTO INDUSTRYAND UNIONS: EVERYONE SUFFERS. EVERYONE GAINS

There have been many stories about the auto industry over the last several weeks. With the problems of the Big 3: Ford, Chrysler, and GM being the predominant topic.

There has been much division among the critics. Some blaming the unions for the downfall and the problems associated with the losses in the industry and none have suggested plans, other than the typical get rid of the unions mentality bashing, that would help the industry. They all have one common theme though.

Make the Big 3 like the foreign competitors such as Toyota.

I have never understood the willingness to trash the unions and blame them for the economic woes of the industry in general. Unions are what helped to create a strong middle class and forced the working way of life we enjoy today such as a 40 hour work week, safe workplaces, health care benefits, retirements, pensions. You get the idea. Bust up the unions and what do we have?

A return to low wages and unfair work practices. Think I am wrong? Ask anyone you know that works through a temp agency so abundant today how they are treated in comparison to regular workers. It is amazing how much they get abused and who cares right? They are only temps. But that is another story.

Without the unions our way of work life would be drastically different. I admit I am a union supporter. I have worked both sides from white collar management in a union environment to a union line worker. And coming from both sides I can assure you that in most major plants a union is definitely necessary. I could tell you stories about when in management the upper echelons would try to force us white collar guys to do things that were in essence unethical in regards to our employees.

I can also tell you things as a union employee that the union leadership would ask us to do that I consider equally unethical. To-ma-to, to-mah-to. They both rely on each other to coexist and provide a living for our families and in most cases it works.

That is why in many cases I generally do not get the "be like Toyota" mindset.

Take today's Courier article for example. courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal. This article shows Toyota is realizing the same problems as the Big 3. They are losing money and having to reevaluate their operations as well.

According to this from the article:

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will report the first operating loss in 70 years, acknowledging that after a decade of rapid growth it can no longer escape the slowdown plaguing the global auto industry. The Japanese auto giant also lowered its global vehicle sales forecast for the second time this year and said it was putting ambitious expansion plans on hold, in large part because of a precipitous drop in demand in the key U.S. market.

"The tough times are hitting us far faster, wider and deeper than expected," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told a gloomy news conference at the company's Nagoya headquarters. "This is an unprecedented crisis requiring urgent action."

This is perhaps the biggest statement I see in the article:

But Watanabe said a severe drop in demand, especially in the U.S., which accounts for one-third of vehicle sales, and profit erosion from a surging yen were too much for Japan's No. 1 automaker. Overall U.S. auto sales fell to their lowest level in 26 years last month.

One third of Toyota sales come exclusively from the US. How many autos does that take away from the Big 3 that support thousands of US jobs and company profits each year?

Accordingly: Toyota said it expects an operating loss of 150 billion yen ($1.66 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March, compared with an operating profit of 2.27 trillion yen ($25.2 billion) a year earlier.

That is a 1 year change of minus $26.8 Billion. Unions are the problem?

Interestingly enough Toyota is non union and have based their sales on the same small car mentality that many blame the Big 3 of ignoring.

In addition the article goes on to include this.

"The problem is next year," said Mochimaru. "It's unmistakable that things are extremely tough for Toyota."

Welcome to our world.

Watanabe and other Toyota executives repeated a recent announcement that expansion plans will be on hold, including a new plant in Mississippi and projects in India.
Toyota said there were no plans to lay off any full-time employees, though it plans to cut the number of temporary workers at its Japanese plants in half to about 3,000.

Let's not forget this as well. Last week, Japan's No. automaker, Honda Motor Co., also lowered profit and sales forecasts and declined to give a vehicle sales goal for 2009.

It would seem that Toyota is in dire straits as well would it not? Is that the fault of the union? Not in this case.

Toyota has always been fed with a silver spoon from mainstream media and anti union types intent on destroying the middle class way of life. The comparisons have always been "Toyota is lean" or "they put out a better quality product."

With leading indicators showing the Big 3, primarily Ford, have matched or exceeded the quality aspects it would seem Toyota is going through the same problems the Big 3 did for years. Growing pains.

This should clearly show that unions are not the problem at the Big 3.

The auto industry overall is going through some major growing pains today as are all in every industry with an economy in shambles, people struggling to pay the bills, unemployment equalling record numbers, and no readily available money to correct the problem with increased spending by consumers.

Yet we give $700 billion in tax money to the banking industry who so far have spent it on bonuses to failing leadership, extravagant weekend getaways (think AIG), and bank takeovers of what? You guessed it other banks. The rich get richer or at least stay that way at our expense.

Then we have to fight for taxpayer assistance in the auto industry with the Big 3 for a paltry $17 billion in comparison that will help save thousands of jobs. Let's quit blaming unions for costing jobs and put the blame where it lies.

Anyone see the problem here? It isn't unions. It is faulty greed driven decision making by corporate interests at the expense of all of us.

Union the problem? I beg to differ.