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To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (863)	11/26/1998 11:09:00 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Respond to of 3558

Darren, I think what he means is the one way ratchet action that unions have. Like a snake the teeth point inwards and they cannot/willnot disgorge gains even when it is in their direct economic interest to do so. The UAW has exported hundreds of thousands of jobs to Asia. On the face of it Asia cannot compete in cars, they are large freight intensive objects with ahigh degree of automation in their production.(automation forced by high wage costs). the real driver of this is the seniority system. Ask the juniors who got laid off because the old fart workers kept after endless raises. What happens when the system gets so automated that no workers at all are needed? That is the GM holy grail, with subassemblies automated in workerless isolation. What if the japs do that first?, a 7% duty will not overcome that advantage. Right now the freight cost of a car plus the duty is enough to pay the UAW wages. With mexican factories from USA subcomponents you approach this, as long as the factories cluster close to each other. This is why the UAW wants to unionize Mexico. They could care less about Mexican workers, they want equal fetters. Bill