I was in a unionized company for 17 years before it essentially went belly up. We made great product, had one of the world’s greatest R&D organizations and had a pretty good relationship with management. They overestimated the demand for their product, overexpanded to meet that demand and gave unrealistic profit expectations to investors. When the bottom started falling out many employees actually bought more stock because they couldn’t believe a company so good could be run so badly. They thought it was a blip. Our stock lost over 90% of its value. Massive layoffs left once busy factories looking like downtown Detroit. Just about everyone was devestated except the top management team, who walked away rich, fat and happy. Sure, they walked away with millions instead of hundreds of millions but hundreds of thousands of families were devestated. I can’t even begin to think about the losses other than financial. Dissolving marriages, bankruptcies, even suicides. The failure was entirely because of mismanagement. The company was Lucent Technologies, look it up. The company I started with before Lucent was spun off, AT&T, isn’t run much better. I have no idea how it is still even in business.
GREED is what kills companies.
Greedy workers and greedy management and greedy stockholders who all demand an unreasonable return on their respective investments.
The union where I work just voted NOT to walk out by about 9 to 1. The owners have threatened several times to shut it down if it loses money consistently.Keep in mind many of the union workers receive over $25 per hour,some near $35.