“I’m not trying to give you a dig here, but I wonder how many non-union jobs will disappear if GM goes down. I wouldn’t be surprised if from suppliers to sales, we’re talking far more than the number of those who are actually employed at GM.”
I did think about the white collar jobs, but we cannot carry along sick companies to protect those workers...otherwise we don’t have a free market. Any time a company fails, non-union people lose jobs too - sometimes lots of non-union people. Often some of those non-union people are well beyond their prime and should have been let go (I work with a number of those), but management feels an (understandable) bond to these people. So the process of staying competitive does that job. Rough, but the alternative is much, much, worse.
I do agree with some of what you said. Look, the government has no place picking winners and losers. It has no business cutting bond holders off at the pass. It has no business intruding and giving unions management or ownership positions. I disagree with that across the board.
If ever there was a company that should go down, I believe GM to be one, due to government actions, due to union actions.
I will say that dismissing out of hand, all the non-union people that would be effected by this, is severely problematic in this business environment. You mentioned older dead wood, and that older dead wood would find it next to impossible to find new employment.
There are plenty of younger people in the work force looking for employment. Most businesses are going to opt for them. I’m not saying self-interest is bad here either, but there are misconceptions about long term employees too.
The characterization of older people not being productive, is a flawed premise. SOME are. Others have a long term expertise that is valuable to the business.
I have seen businesses chop employees that cost them a number of times what the employee was making, only to hire in someone at more money and far less key knowledge to replace them. Those new hires making more money could not rebuild (or would take a decade or more to rebuild) what was destroyed during the process.
I have seen many people treated this way, and I am still anti-union and argue with some family members regularly on the topic.