Union Productivity: The Downfall of the Detroit Three?
Rand Simberg argues that UAW work rules have killed the productivity of the Detroit Three. He thinks it's possible that the companies could survive paying the high salaries if they had a free hand to simultaneously increase worker productivity. But they don't and for that reason the union deserves to die.
Some have claimed that the only goal of the Republicans was to break the union. Well, if that -- or at least breaking the work rules -- wasn't one of the goals, it should be, because there is no saving this industry without doing so in some form. After all, the union played a major role in breaking it. If we could do so, the Wagner Act, a relic of the Depression and New Deal, should be repealed or at least revised as well. Unfortunately, with the party and mindset that passed it over seventy years ago once again in power in Washington, they seem much more likely to dramatically worsen it and spread the infection to the rest of American industry.
I'm a sympathetic to his arguments, but I have to admit that they're entirely based on anecdotal evidence. I'd be interested in seeing actual statistics about the productivity differences between the Detroit Three and everybody else.