UAW - U Are Whacked

I saw this on the Wall Street Journal site and couldn't resist posting it (full article here: WSJ - UAW).  This, to me, is amusing at best.  What are the odds that workers will test corporate patience and attempt to unionize?  Perhaps the union should have waited until all the stories of them bankrupting (and then stealing shares in) the US auto manufacturers were out of sight.  Lets see if they can find the next golden goose to strangle.

The United Auto Workers union said it is prepared to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a bid to organize employees, including a new push for hourly factory workers at foreign-owned car plants in the U.S.

 The effort is part of a major shift in focus by the UAW, which had spent most of the past 75 years extracting better wages and benefits from the three Detroit auto makers.

 Now, after two of the Big Three were forced into bankruptcy, in part because of uncompetitive labor contracts, the union's new president intends to make a major push this year to organize workers at U.S. plants owned by makers such as Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co.

"I think this is an unprecedented effort by the UAW and pivotal to its survival," said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in labor issues. But he said the union faces many barriers, including pay at many of these plants that is on par with the Detroit Three's and efforts by the foreign companies to paint the union as unnecessary and counterproductive.

UAW President Bob King signaled in an interview the union is willing to take a much less confrontational approach to foreign car makers than it did decades ago in battles to become established at the Big Three.

But if the companies don't agree to a set of rules being promoted by the union to ensure what it calls free and fair union elections, he indicated the fight could turn nasty—and global.

The UAW, he said, would hold demonstrations at the corporate headquarters of these companies outside the U.S. as well as at their U.S. plants. In addition, it would picket their dealerships in the U.S. and abroad, and sports events globally that are sponsored by the car companies. 

 Wish 'em the best of luck - NOT!