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CEA’s Gary Shapiro Assails Govt. Regulations, Certain Union Activities
Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association CEO
During a recent trip to an impoverished India, Shapiro was reminded of just how good we have it in the U.S., with our reliable electricity, plumbing and medical care, and our wealth of creativity and enterprise.
"Yet, we are quickly putting our American way of life at risk," Shapiro writes:
In the last few months our government has spent nearly a trillion dollars we don't have to bolster a few companies considered too important to fail. We are on the verge of spending billions more to temporarily bail out three American car companies, while doing nothing to resolve their core problem -- bloated autoworker union contracts.
Shapiro rightly assails the pending "card check" legislation that would deny union members a secret ballot, and he accuses Democrats of kowtowing to the union leaders who put half a billion dollars into election coffers this season.
Gary Shapiro has some serious chutzpah.
It isn't politically correct to challenge anything vaguely related to unions or workers -- even when we know intellectually that U.S. workers ultimately suffer from purported "labor-friendly" actions, such as taxing imported goods.
My new year's resolution was to avoid controversy and try not to tick people off but I think I'm off to a bad start.
I applaud Gary's guts in sticking up for free enterprise, at a time when the popular sentiment is to "protect" ourselves through handouts, taxes, regulations and isolationism.
Gary sums it up nicely:
We have lost our way. A misplaced sense of entitlement is creating hardships that may push our innovation economy overseas. Our mounting debt is fueling our last grasp on primacy. Our laws are discouraging innovation and investment. And soon our crumbling infrastructure and faltering economy will hasten our fall from the top.
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18 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Dale,
Too often people have in the past only used some of the facts to make a point but today people are so hyper aware of everthing they want all the facts. The days of Fox News are waining and people want to know the whole story.
Gary came across as a bit of a partisan mouthpiece and not someone trying to inform his following with good information.
Again though we have to move away from dividing us one from another and figure how to work together on the problems even if our leadership fails us.
Does he drive a Mercedes Benz, subsidized by Alabama, a BMW subsidized by South Carolina, Nissan subsidized by Tennessee or Honda, Toyota or Hundai subsidized by several other, mostly Southern, states? I’ll bet on the Benz!
Hypocrisy has become the creed of too many conservatives. Makes him look like the fool he is.
BTW, Gary, I’ve been to India 4 times, and it’s the only place I know more corrupt than the neocons and bushies!
Steve,
In actuality I was mistaken in my previous post: NON-UNION AUTO WORKERS EARN MORE PER HOUR THAN UNION AUTO WORKERS!!! As just one example in a recent publication, please see a February 1, 2007 article in an auto industry trade journal (After Market News) which did a well researched article about pay rates at the domestic and foreign automakers:
http://www.aftermarketnews.com/Item/28594/uaw_losing_pay_edge_foreign_automakers_bonuses_boost_wages_in_us_plants_as_detroit_car_companies_struggle.aspx
I believe, and author of this article also believes, that well managed companies with an abundance of satisfied customers can charge more for their products and reward their workers with better pay, benefits and bonuses. In other words, content workers do not want to be unionized; and, satisfied customer pay more for quality goods/services and they are repeat customers.
It is so easy to quickly point a scornful finger at unions and lay mistaken blame upon them. Being a former union member I can say there are some positive aspects to being a union member, and there are some negative aspects to union organizations. In my small CE integration business I provide better products and services than my competition which gives me more customers than I can handle (including today even with the bad economic environment). So, I turn down 25%+ of the jobs that come my way and I provide my employees with higher compensation than the area competition. No employee of mine has ever mentioned wanting to join a union, and if they ever do want to unionize I will have to seriously examine my manner of doing business as I must be doing something wrong.
Steve to directly answer your question—decades of poor management and many retired workers receiving pensions are the reasons for the big 3 automakers losing market share and profitability - plus, they are asking for taxpayer bailouts.
I am very sorry that Gary Shapiro who is the biggest figurehead representing out consumer electronics industry has so distorted the facts of union vs. non-union auto industry wage earners to push his personal agenda. In essence, Gary Shapiro bites-the-hand-that-feeds the CE industry: well paid individuals (be they wage earners, executives, professionals, entrepreneurs, or old-money) spend surplus money on consumer electronic products and services. Shame on you Gary Shapiro for offending the auto industry wage earners.