SEPTA Strike

[tw]

Originally posted by adamzion
"Are being sent out of this country?" ...
The argument is frequently made that unions drove the manufacturers out of the US by raising the cost of doing business too high via higher wages. And the argument has merit.

What is LAs second largest industry? The largest is entertainment. Second would be aerospace? Electronics? Computers? No. Textiles. Low tech textiles? No textiles were a high tech industry - but not in Philly. Those Philly textile plants are monuments to industries that did not innovate. What happened to a T-shirt that does not require seams up the side? It was developed where a textile industry innovated - new equipment - new methods.

The unions did not drive the industry out. The industry stagnated. They cost controlled using the same obsolete technology equipment. In fact most of the now missing Philly industries are products of cost controls. For example, where was the Sony Trinitron developed? Philly. What happened to all those great RCA Victor products? Cost controls. Ever try Campbell's greasy soup vs Progresso - which is what Campbells should have created?

Unions did not create those losses. The unions simply demanded parity for work performed. Had management not stifled innovations, then those jobs would have been saved.

In a graduate class, a Boeing employee from Seattle, and in Philly for a few years - was appauled at how myopic the local Boeing was. How difficult it was, compared to west coast Boeing, to accomplish anything. We now see the result - Osprey - which will be canceled because of serious managment problem in that Philadelphia Boeing facility - including lies and coverups concerning failure rates.

85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. That applies to rows of abandoned N Philly industries.