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I just had a lenghty conversation with a production manager/ME manager who has worked in 5 different manufacturing plants in the Mke area.

FOUR of the five plants had outstanding labor relations with unions--no problems whatsoever.

Painting with a broad brush is not real smart.

Allis-Chalmers closed because an ex-GE executive who became the A-C CEO was a spendthrift and put the Company's future into "coal gasification"---didn't work. Bankruptcy followed.

AO Smith had a union problem, but (in case you didn't notice) automobile-frame production is now approximately zero. Only trucks have frames, and the cap-cost of a plant meant to produce 750K units/year didn't hold up well against a realistic 375K/year projection. The union problem paled in significance to the reduction in orders from the Big Three. And, BTW, single-plant source about 6 hours (or more) from your customers is not ideal, either.

Enviro? Yeah, Wisconsin has more reg burden than some states.

OTOH, we could compare Red China, with zero wage/hour, zero safety, zero enviro, zero retirement. Ideal place to make stuff, as most of the Fortune 500 has found.

I would think that Carly Fiorina would want to move there instead of mooching off US regulatory protection for HER and her family while she figuratively takes a dump in some Chinaman's kitchen.

"...a production manager/ME manager...worked in 5 different manufacturing plants in the Mke area.

"FOUR of the five plants had outstanding labor relations with unions--no problems whatsoever. (emphasis added)

"Painting with a broad brush is not real smart...."

I concur.

Offering as an example five manufacturing plants in one area, one plant of which had apparent labor relations troubles, is also "painting with a broad brush", is it not?

I did not mean to suggest the problem be tied to "labor relations" per se but rather more with the challenges of trying to manage in the 21st Century while having to deal with a dinosaur that too often is the union-controlled dictates one finds in such workplaces.

Right, wrong or indifferent, did businesses not consider relocating facilities or other means of reducing labor costs, particularly those which may be higher in an environment in which a labor union represents its workforce?

Even in a swath of color placed by a broad brush one may find details that stand apart from the underlying tones.