http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/18/motor-city-gm-lessons-verizon-strikers-cwa-steve-forbes-column/84494650/
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management in cubicles always reminds me of middle age serfs stacking hay
@kwn. Please re-read my post. The 80% was related to those who either don't know about, or don't care about the strike. Before coming at me there hotrod, try learning to read first.
Actually, they could have survived with unions and prospered, as they did post WW II, up until the 1973 Arab oil embargo.
U.S. car manufacturer's had no vision and we're led by shortsighted CEOs & bad management, with little research, development or innovation.
Their greed and arrogance got the best of the Big 3:
They made unsafe cars and criminally refused to acknowledge it (see the rise of Ralph Nader over the Chevrolet Corvair
They missed the boat on small cars & fuel savings in the early 1970' (Arab oil embargo) which hastened the popularity of small, fuel efficient Japanese cars.
In the 1980's, a company like GM laughingly competed against itself, like for example, it's style of rebadging the same exact vehicle (Cadilac Escalade, GMC Yukon, Chevy Tahoe)
Saturn was a success and customer driven partnership with GM and it's unions and they killed the project, despite Saturn's popularity, and morphed it back into just another corporate division, allowing it to stagnate and not update it.
They missed the boat on hybrids in the 1990's, concentrating on gas-guzzling SUVs, while the Japanese were devleoping the Prius for example.
Oh, they made ugly, non-innovative, boring cars that people laughed at, from the Edsel, to the Pontiak Aztek, which many consider to be the ugliest vehicle of all time.
Oh, and they shuffled around management and CEOs like musical chairs.
Bad foresight, bad management, failing to grasp new ideas and innovation, looking at only the bottom line. Kind of like what they are doing with FIOS fiber optic, as a true innovative company like Google just got in the game.
Yeah, Forbes sure left all that out, that's for sure.
HtuHPvD-roy
Really? 80% of country against unions? Wrong. Lol. Maybe in your part of rural America. Not where the majority of Americans live. In big cities unions are much more likes than corporations or big business.
Perception is usually reality. Forbes may be all you say he is, BUT, his article is factual and reaches millions. The mediator doesn't have blinders on and will look at all union contracts and the private sector (non-union). Another Union mistake.
It really floors me how out of touch with reality the union members are. It's like they can't think beyond the confines of their little world that extends 20 blocks in each direction. The vast majority of the country are anti-union, and this strike is barely a blip on the radar for 80% of America. No one is watching and no one outside of VZ cares. If anyone would read this article with an open mind, it's very clear how out of touch the union is. But trying to convince them of that is like trying to teach Physics to a pig.
steve forbes is a loser and like most heirs blames working people instead of his almightyness http://www.businessinsider.com/forbes-heirs-nearly-bankrupted-forbes-media-while-taking-100-million-for-themselves-2011-7
Here is Steve Forbes
A Failed Manager With No Real World Experience
No job requires more management skills than the presidency. But at the only two positions where Steve has managed people, his efforts have been controversial at best.
His main experience, of course, has been running Forbes Magazine. (His brother took over during the 1996 race.) Steve increased the number of ad pages at Forbes past competitors such as Fortune, through deep discounts and aggressive salesmanship. However, in 1992, a magazine article charged that Forbes Magazine was actually losing money, a charge that Steve denied. Since then, everyone agrees that Forbes Magazine is the industry leader in ad sales -- in fact it sells more ad pages (4,500) than any other magazine in the world.
On the other hand, Fortune Magazine (which sells 3,200 pages a year and is "very profitable") charged in a 1996 article that Forbes got those ads with a policy of not printing bad news about companies that advertise. They document several stories that Forbes or his publisher rewrote or killed to avoid offending big advertisers. That doesn't bode well for his independence from the influence of big money interests.
Forbes also fired his secretary of 13 years, Ann Barton, just before her 65th birthday, and has written editorials in favor of allowing forced retirement at that age. When she sued him for age discrimination, he responded viciously, giving a long deposition attacking her competence and attitude, even though she had been his personal secretary for 13 years. When the judge ruled against Forbes in a preliminary hearing, he settled out of court. This isn't a big scandal, as some of the press implies, but it shows a heavy hand in managing people.
His mean streak also shows in his choice of campaign staffers -- notably Carter Wrenn and Tom Ellis, two men behind years of Jesse Helms' most vicious campaigns until Wrenn fell out with Helms in 1994. Forbes' heavily negative campaign ads show their strong influence.
His resume trumpets the fact that "Mr. Forbes is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. This prize was given by USX Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved to be most accurate." Competitor Fortune Magazine brought that claim down to earth in an article pointing out that the award was for a gag competition after an annual banquet USX threw, where people guess at certain economic indicators. They quote two 2-time winners who thought the whole thing was a joke and thought it was pretty funny for Forbes to brag about it. The award is no longer given, incidentally.
Steve's other managerial experience was in the mid-80s, when his Republican connections got him appointed head of the board that oversaw Radio Free Europe. According to an inspector general's report cited in Newsweek, the agency was "rife with uncontrolled spending and lax management." Forbes claims that real spending was reduced, but Bob Dole remembers that Forbes "was always coming and asking me for money [for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.]
Also a Draft dodger. much much more on this loser
http://realchange.org/forbes.htm
This was an amazing article by a neutral source. Most articles have been biased towards a side, typically that of the union (easier to achieve viewership painting a fortune company as an evil source) but this one actually points to facts. All he said is true & VZ never said it was deploying more calls overseas, they actually stated in the contract that they were making them take on more to reach the limits agreed to in the last contract. Fact is, union leadership will hide behind "the govt called mediation" rather than admit they made a mistake.
"Yes they want a feudal system, but the lords (rich repubs) have overlooked one important issue. Thanks to them the serfs can get guns at the corner store. The feudal system won't work when the serfs can rebel and win. That's what it's coming to, what a shame."
For the love of the gene pool, please off yourself...yesterday... DERP
VZ article day after sit down, read between the lines. VZ is dug in. Steve and Lowell swim in the same pool.
Its about how you swing the hammer to take off lead sheath
@fuw you think electricity is an art? It's a science. Ever hear of ohm's law? If you think it's an art, you probably should be the first to go.
25%raise, no double time, no differential
"I imagine that VZ will win this one. Even if they drive the wireline side into the ground and bankrupt it."
One of the stupidest comment I have heard in a while. First of all Vz wireless and Vz landline are the same company. They can not bankrupt the wireline. Second, if they are trying to eventually sell the plant, which as much as you keep on insisting will happen I don't think it will, why would they totally drive it into the ground? That would just diminish the price they can get. Nobody on here, who claims to have sooo much insight, knows anything about what is going on. As much as all you vteamers wish this is the begining of the end for the union, it isn't. My logical reason, I don't have any inside info, is that both the union and the company made some concessions on Sunday which brought their differences closer together. The reason the union didn't agree to mediation on April 13 is because they were very far apart. With some movement between the two sides the union now feels it is in a better position for mediation. Both sides were ready for a fight and got one. Now both are punch drunk and are ready to compromise. Both sides will bend.
Contract - Done deal - back to work 5 days after vote
No movement of jobs beyond current contract limits
9.5% raise
Job security (not really as there will still be surplus) read the fine print - no buyouts
Union never touches VZW
Call centers stay outsourced
two tier employment (BACCSI) is back
Pension 30 years -
Win for VZ as they don't budge on what the union stated as their walk reasons w/exception of moving workforce - but they can hire union employees at reduced rate / reduced benefits
Some jobs are a art. There is no particular way to do it.
If soneone is a better and faster artist, what does he get
Yeah read this article and frankly the more companies take away from workers it will be lost forever and this is not acceptable. This is a poor way to look at the future for this country. Mr. forbes is basically saying all should go to the 1% and screw the workers. He also forgot that landline is now FIOS, so that is a future product that the company still needs to fulfill contracts. This article never mentioned the amount of money upper executives receive at the cost of their workers. Total bias article and disappointing read, since his eyes only sees the money that lines executives pockets.
This whole idea that a mediator has taken a side of the union (or any side), when a mediators job is ensure fairness akin to a referee, reaks of a horrible union leader talking point to make associates feel good about the shaft they are about to receive. Balls deep.
@irs .... Forbes ignorant about technology? Not hardly. Business is business and quite frankly, the Unions have priced themselves out of the game and they seem to think they should be able to tell management how to run the company. VZ needs people gone or moved to other areas and probably more than anything else this is what the company wants. They likely could care less about capping the pension; but being able to offer a very lucrative ISP or EISP to get people to leave or move is what they need. The Union seems intent on blocking that effort.
I imagine that VZ will win this one. Even if they drive the wireline side into the ground and bankrupt it. VZ could spin off the OSP forces as a CLEC and keep the C.O. and C.O.Ts and bring them into the the core wireless.
Yes they want a feudal system, but the lords (rich repubs) have overlooked one important issue. Thanks to them the serfs can get guns at the corner store. The feudal system won't work when the serfs can rebel and win. That's what it's coming to, what a shame.
@coz - where do you get that she is pro-union? She clearly has a history of negotiating for companies like Boeing, who's taken give back after giveback. Just because you are familiar with how unions work, doesn't make you pro-union.
@dur - and that's the exact problem with the government, mostly corporate lobby money whores. And of course you will see a biased article coming from ivory tower out of touch with everyone else "forbes" siding with Verizon, he is a let them eat cake "have" kind of guy. It's an all out assault against the rest of us including yourself , the have nots.
Our members have the best contract that people with their skills and education could ever hope to get. But we've convinced them that with every new contract, they're entitled to more.” That attitude, out of date by a generation, still prevails among labor leadership.
Wow, I never knew Forbes was that ignorant about how technology works. He should stick to his magazine.
USA Today reaches millions and there will be no sympathy from average joe. Well timed article by Forbes (VZ). Don't be fooled by mediation or DOL's power. Big business owns DOL.
Oh you mean that high dollar mediator that is 100% pro union? Yeah I think we will do just fine
Yep - Just like a high dollar mediator and secretary of labor - hmm rich college educated yuppies - they will help us...
So does Verizon plan on filing for Bankruptcy like those 2 companies did? lol
Biased article by a rich yuppie who probably exploits the people that works for him, so what? I'm sure he also wants to see a feudal system exist in this country as well.
Union-bamboozled workers who reject comfy wage and benefit packages will be left behind in shrinking sector.
635991049986177651-forbes.JPG
(Photo: Jake Danna Stevens, The (Scranton, Pa.) Times-Tribune via AP)
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Next month will mark seven years since General Motors’ bankruptcy. The anniversary will coincide with the 50th day of work stoppage since unionized workers in Verizon’s old landline phone business went on strike. The juxtaposition will likely go largely unnoticed, but it should unnerve those picketers.
It is almost as hard to find a payphone these days as it is to find a Pontiac dealership. The world has changed, but Big Labor does not want to change with it. The lavish compensation packages unions enjoyed in the 20th century monopoly days belong in a museum beside the Pontiac GTO and rotary dial telephones. Yet union leadership continues to ignore modern realities.
Some lessons, it seems, are learned only the hard way.
On April 13, Communications Workers of America members employed in Verizon’s shrinking landline business (they are just over a fifth of Verizon’s employees) walked out on salary and compensation packages that most American workers could only dream about.
By most accounts, the principal stumbling block is Verizon’s insistence on greater flexibility in where and how it can deploy its workforce as customer needs or emergency situations dictate. The unions cast any loosening of the these rules as too big an imposition on the lives of workers. In a changing industry with a receding customer base, it’s not hard to see why this issue is paramount to the dispute.
The average Verizon telecom worker in the Northeast is paid $130,000 to $160,000 a year in salary and benefits. In pay alone, an average striking customer service employee earns $69,000. Verizon’s unionized employees typically enjoy guaranteed pay increases, generous health insurance coverage, a 401(k) match for retirement and a separate pension.
On top of all of this, Verizon has offered a 7.5% wage increase. In addition the generous 401(k) and defined pension plans continue. If all that weren’t enough, these workers would still retain protection from layoffs. Can you imagine how many American workers would yearn for such a guarantee?
USA TODAY
Glenn Reynolds: Don't be a sucker for socialism
Walking away from such an offer, especially in this economy, is lunacy. Labor leaders who convince their members that these terms are unreasonable are living in a fantasy world, one that pines for the days of the Ma Bell telecom monopoly contracts. It is the same antiquated thinking — and stubbornness — that contributed to the collapse of GM.
Many factors led to GM’s bankruptcy, but there is no question that unsustainable labor contracts played a major role. GM was paying average labor costs for United Auto Workers members of $69 an hour while Honda and Toyota paid $44 an hour.
Leonard Woodcock, president of the UAW for most of the 1970s, once said, “Our members have the best contract that people with their skills and education could ever hope to get. But we've convinced them that with every new contract, they're entitled to more.” That attitude, out of date by a generation, still prevails among labor leadership.
The GM example is not the only one that should worry Verizon’s CWA members. FairPoint Communications workers in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine went on a similar strike in 2014 though their labor leaders knew major concessions had to be made. In the end, the company lost millions, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the CWA agreed to deep cuts in retirement and health care benefits and to looser restrictions on hiring outside contractors.