The UAW (and how they fuck us) Page 2

• UAW workers earn $75 an hour in wages and benefits–almost triple the earnings of the average private sector worker.
• These benefits, and a JOBS bank that pays UAW workers nearly full wages to not work, have been a major force driving the Detroit automakers’ current fiscal woes.
• The UAW’s lavish health benefits added $1,200 to the cost of each vehicle produced in the United States.
• The Japanese automakers, by contrast, provide standard health benefits to their American employees. Consequently, health care for active workers cost Toyota $215 per vehicle in 2006.

Things I've Actually Seen at Various Union Plants

Workers sleeping on the job.

Not only do they sleep 'on the clock'; they sleep out in the open where everyone else can see them (including management).  Some of the sleepy workers also have areas in these plants where they actually have cots or mats laid out to take a nap. (this is not a joke)

Each worker has one job and one job only.

As a service technician, I was sent to a union plant to fix a malfunctioning piece of equipment.  I was shocked on my first visit to learn that not only can I not touch the machine - there are "specialists" for each area of the machine.  These "specialists" include electricians, pipe fitters, and millwrights (among others).  So in order to remove a valve from a machine - you will need an electrician to disconnect the plug on the valve (1 screw), and a millwright to remove the valve (4 bolts).  All of this will take 1-2 hours depending on if it's 'break time'.   You cannot even open the electrical panel (a handle) because you are "doing the job of a union worker".  Somehow this is an acceptable way of efficient buisness practice.

Taking a lazy ass Union worker's job

Another instance - A new machine needed to be disassembled outside of a union plant due to weight restrctions on the floor of the plant.  Because our crew of four was 'taking the work of a union worker', there were 8 union employees who sat and watched us all week.  These employees got paid $25-30/hr to sit outside and smoke cigarettes all day.