First exposure to unions

My brother and I used to deliver the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the 70's.  We used to pick up our papers at a local grocery store.  One morning, we came across a pay stub of an employee who was union worker at Allied Chemical.  What struck us was the union dues withheld from this employee's paycheck.  I do not recall the exact amount but it stood out as being significant.  My brother tried to explain to me the benefits of union membership. All I could remember was the union dues.  It just did not seem fair.

I will admit that I believe unions have improved what was once awful and even horrific working conditions in this country.  They have improved the standard of living for most Americans.  They have championed benefits that flowed into other industries.  However, their legitimate mistrust of management and desire to get the best for their rank and file caused them to overreach.  This overreach coupled with management's extravagance, hubris, mistakes, and missed opportunities brought the auto industry to its knees in 2008.

In "Crash Course", the author chronicles the life of a UAW member who worked over 30 years at Chrysler.  Despite its close calls with bankruptcy, this worker and his fellow union members believed that Chrysler would always bounce back from the brink and be around for them.  Call it naivete or hubris, like those
who proclaimed the Titanic as "unsinkable", perhaps those at Chrysler and elsewhere have fallen into a flawed mindset: that "The Big 3" would always be around and the US government would never let them fail.

The free market, a truly free market, is like Darwinism.  Though insensitive to human suffering, it can weed out the weak and inefficient businesses, even our auto industry.  They have had their chances to change their ways only to revert back to behavior which continues to bedevil them.  Perhaps allowing GM to fail in 2008 would have been just the wake-up call they needed.  Sadly and owing to their dismal track records, I do not believe that the UAW and auto industry management will change.