I used to work for American Motors and have a few horror stories about why the auto companies are in the shape they are in now. I ran the maintenance department in a building across the street from the rest of the plant. They had an interior two story bridge to get over the road. Whenever we had a replacement or fill in guy he had to get his toolbox across the bridge. Even though these guys moved and installed all types of equipment wit hfork trucks the union contract stated that they couldn't move their own toolbox. That could only be done by a "driver". So every time someone worked the weekend they would have to wait for a driver to move the toolbox over the bridge twice. The system was set up to offer senority not by who had the most hours (share the wealth) but by senority. So that means that the electrician with the most senority would be the first one on the overtime list. Oh yeah - he was as big around as he was tall and had a doctors excuse that did not allow him to climb a ladder. All of the control panels for our equipment were on a maintenance platform above the equipment with a ladder to access it. So if I needed an electrician I had to pay the useless guy to work his normal job (what ever that was) plus the guy I ended up using. Don't forget I also had to bring in the driver to move the %$#%$#@ toolbox. Oh of course they can't work without having a union rep on hand so I had to bring him in also. Forgot one more thing - if we were working on production equipment and wanted to make sure that the machinery was ready to go the next day we had to bring in a set up man to test the machinery - and don't forget HIS union rep!! Get the picture??? Paying one guy $80 an hour to work on equipment is bad enough but bringing in 4 or 5 more just to support him is just ridiculous. Just another consideration about the overtime system - because of the senority system that means that many times the people you get in your area would have no idea how your equipment operated (to support production) or what projects you were in the middle of.

We didn't even have the worst rule that has been killing the car companies for many years and that is the really stupid rule that if you are laid off you keep working on "training" or go home and collect 95% of your pay. What idiot would agree to a 3-5 year contract that would guarantee everyones full pay when we normally have at least a mild recession every few years that result in layoffs? I blame the management for that one. Another consideration is medical costs. When I left American Motors in 1987 we had full medical, prescription, dental and vision. No copay at all for anything. When I went to pick up the COBRA insurance the cost was $550 per month. Remember this is in 1987 dollars.

The unions were not the only problem. My second shift supervisor and I were both on duty one night and at lunch break he took me to his usual lunch spot - a bar next door where you could get a sandwich. He asked if I was going to have a beer also and I said "Sure" figuring one wouldn't kill me. The bartender brought his usual - a QUART of beer! No wonder they always had problems fixing the machinery after the 2nd shift lunch break.