Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on the Unplanned Obsolescence of the UAW
The Big Three and the United Auto Workers were on track to blow their midnight deadline to finalize their four-year contract and they did. But regardless of what deal they finally hammer out, Reason Foundation Shikha Dalmia notes in her latest commentary in The Daily, what's already clear is just how irrelevant the UAW is to the final outcome this time. But is this loss of influence temporary or permanent? Can the UAW recover its mojo down the road?
Unlikey, writes Dalmia:
The UAW turned the Big Three into private welfare companies that sold cars. That business model is not sustainable in a globalized world where every domestic inefficiency presents an opportunity for foreign makers. The very forces of globalization that are compelling the Big Three to reduce their labor costs give them options if unions resist. Ford — the only company against which the UAW could strike, because Ford didn't receive a bailout — warned the union going in that a strike would cause it to relocate plants overseas.
Go here to read the whole thing.