Ohio SB 5 The Result of Union Greed

Today’s unemployment in the United States is not an accidental disaster. It was created by the greed and selfishness of labor unions. It isn’t the politically correct thing to say, but it is time to face facts. The labor unions priced their jobs out to foreign countries by demanding wages which the world economy cannot support.

The auto industry is a prime example. In the ‘70s Detroit was a growing city with a booming economy. The population then was 1.8 million. The census data just released puts its population at 713,777, a drop of 25% since 2000. The jobs aren’t there any more because Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors can’t afford to compete with foreign automotive manufacturers. Detroit can’t even complete with auto workers in the South and Midwest.

A short time ago, the average auto worker in Detroit was making $140,000 a year, including all the perks and benefits, which figures out to be $69 an hour. In 2008 the average United Auto Worker’s wage was $73 an hour while foreign manufacturers in the United States were paying $42. Add to the United Auto Workers wages $2,000 per car manufactured by the union for medical insurance and retirement, and the cost of union versus non-union labor costs are mind boggling.

The job loss due to high labor costs has been devastating. The Center for Automotive Research estimated that for every job created by a foreign automotive manufacturer, 6.1 jobs were lost by the Big Three. Is it any wonder that Detroit is a dying city?

The 77 billion dollar government bailout of GM and Chrysler went to pay wages of UAW members. Had the 77 billion dollars been left in the economy where it belonged, there would have been 77 billion which could have bought consumer goods, increased manufacturing, which would have increased the economy. Detroit has been sliding down hill for a number of years.

Government support of a labor union which created the problem through greed at the expense of the rest of the country seems crazy. But United Auto Workers boss Bob King has the answer to this wage problem. Even as Detroit collapses, he promises to "pound" non-unionized automotive plants into submission and force them to join his union and share their current prosperity.

Detroit could have learned from the steel industry. What used to the be world’s best steel producer, both in quality and quantity, has become the fourth largest in world steel production following China, Japan and Russia. As far as steel exports, the United States now holds position 14 in the world. Why? Because the steel workers have, by their wage and benefit demands, raised the price of steel to a point where U.S. steel companies have been priced out of world competition. Why didn’t the leaders of the United Auto Workers take the lesson of the United Steel Workers to heart and learn from it?

Pay-greediness extends through most unions today. Senate Bill 5 in Ohio is an attempt to bring sanity back into wages and benefits in the area of public employees. Most of the vocal opposition to SB 5 comes from the teacher’s and safety force’s unions. It came as no surprise to hear the moaning and self pity from professionals in those fields, from public employees, who by their actions, have demonstrated a lack of responsibility. To use benefits, such as sick and vacation days, to protest a necessary restraint to irresponsible wage and benefit demands in Columbus, demonstrates the lack of commitment which they are so quick to profess, as in “We want to do it for the kids.”

Statements made by those who oppose passage of SB 5 lack the understanding of what its main issues really are. The public employee's unions fall into the same trap of ignorance as did the United Auto Workers and United Steelworkers. They cannot, or refuse to, see the long term effects of the current system of union “negotiations” now in play. The short term thinking of public employees has created a financial burden for governments which has played a major part in the current economic crisis.

The fact of the matter is that nobody, including the union employees who are so against SB 5, can sustain the financial burden forced onto government by a system which uses partisanship and bias to obtain their self-seeking goals. When fact finders and arbitrators are allowed to dictate working conditions and pay scales for municipalities, the end result can only be disaster.

Their basic logic is wrong. If an employee, government or private sector, does their job properly, they should be paid at their level of compliance. This, in short, means that if you do what is required by your job position, the reward is the ability keep your job. If you do not perform, the reward is you’re fired.

Pay increases should be awarded through promotion to a more responsible position, such a move being based on competence, availability of the position, and with the condition that future performance will continue to be of a high caliber. Overall pay increases dictated by union negotiations and imposed by union biased fact finding and arbitration, reward those workers who show incompetence in their positions while penalizing those workers who do excel. Government workers tend to confirm the concepts of the Peter Principle, rising to their level of incompetence and in may cases beyond.

Union selfishness and greed have been detrimental to the automotive and steel industries in the United States. Elected officials, through their fear of union retribution, although union voters make up less than 10% of the voting population, must accept responsibility for creating the conditions which have allowed labor unions to destroy the vibrant economy which the United States once enjoyed. SB 5 is the first step to economic recovery. Unfortunately it is only the first step.