Mazda to make new Toyota subcompact in Mexico

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bentjazz

Yeah, I'm with Nook on this one. I'd also never buy an American car because I refuse to support the UAW. I have a friend who retired from Ford and the stories he has told me coupled with their overt sense of entitlement should make any thinking, sentient individual think twice about buying American cars. They won't get a penny from me, and it's not that I'm entirely against unions, per se, but the UAW is ridiculous. Not to go off on a tangent, but I am 100% against public unions. They are the biggest group of bloodsuckers on the planet....
By the way, is Why? still around? Haven't seen him post in a long time....

Yeah, I hope Why? is okay.

I think in the early 1950s (and earlier) there were many hard working people in private industry who took their jobs very seriously and were being taken advantage of. The unions, at that point, served a, what some might consider, more noble purpose. Unions also had more leverage at that time because industry didn't have as many (on in some cases any) alternative production locations.

I think there are still some union workers who have quite a bit of pride and obviously take their jobs very seriously (the right attitude, IMO). Some of them are right here on Yarisworld. Billiam comes to mind. His passion and serious mindset permeates his words. However, I think the pool of union members with that (IMO) correct mindset is getting smaller with each passing year.

There are even a few UAW workers with the right mindset. One line worker in Michigan (who I believe has since retired) was profiled on one of the newsmagazine shows (60 minutes, etc.) His goal was to reach an net value of 2 million USD in his brokerage account and then (even though eligible for retirement) keep working and donate all of his wages to charity. Fast forward to 2012 and there was a measure on the Michigan ballot to codify collective bargaining into the state constitution. Sanity prevailed, and it didn't pass. The UAW has, however, certainly has had excesses revealed...both publicly and privately. In a public way, look at the Chrysler workers interrupted while smoking and drinking in a park by a local reporter...TWICE. One would have thought that they would have learned after this happened the first time. Privately, the best friend of a girlfriend of mine in the 90s started dating a guy who worked at the NUMMI plant. This guy was as dumb as a rock. My girlfriend had never known any union workers before this and, although very intelligent, wasn't very well versed in the world of unions. The girlfriend's boyfriend had the job of taking the car off the end of the line driving it to where it would be kept (temporarily) on the property. My girlfriend thought this guy might be making minimum wage (or a bit more) because his job was so simple. Her friend (the girlfriend of the UAW worker) said her boyfriend was making 40.00 per hour. My girlfriend was outraged.

At least with some unions in private industry, the consumer has a chance to vote with their dollars. With public sector unions, they don't. Even FDR (32nd POTUS) thought public sector unions were wrong, that in essence, the fox would be guarding the hen house'. In the 1950s Mayor Wagner in New York City first allowed public employee unions, and afterward got reelected. President Kennedy (even though he had already said 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country') saw what Wagner..........POSTING NOW (I'M AT A CAFE THAT IS CLOSING) WILL EDIT/FINISH IN A FEW MINUTES.