As manufacturing bounces back from recession, unions are left behind

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-manufacturing-bounces-back-from-recession-unions-are-left-behind/2013/01/16/4b4a7368-5e88-11e2-90a0-73c8343c6d61_story.html?hpid=z2

Last July was a good month for factory workers in Anderson, Ind., where a Honda parts supplier announced plans to build a new plant and create up to 325 jobs. But it was a grim month in the Cleveland suburbs, where an industrial plastics firm told the state of Ohio it was closing a plant and laying off 150 people.

Nearly all of the Ohio workers belonged to a labor union. Workers at the Indiana plant don’t. Their fates fit a post-recession pattern: American factories are hiring again, but they’re not hiring union members.

U.S. manufacturers have added a half-million new workers since the end of 2009, making the sector one of the few bright spots in an otherwise weak recovery. And yet there were 4 percent fewer union factory workers in 2012 than there were in 2010, according to federal survey data. On balance, all of the job gains in manufacturing have been non-union.

The trend underscores a central conundrum in the “manufacturing renaissance” that President Obama loves to tout as an economic accomplishment: The new manufacturing jobs are different from the ones that delivered millions of American workers a ticket to the middle class over the past half-century.

[Fumesucker]

1. I think this falls into the "No one could have predicted" category although "I'm shocked" would work

ETA: BTW, I just want to say thanks for the articles you put up so much, some of them are really good and I get a lot out of your posts.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

2. but isn't Ohio ALREADY right-to-work?!?

Man, I hope there are mfg jobs left in OH when we pull out and I get home.

[daybranch]

9. we supported unions by turning back senate bill 5

we will support unions because unions are necessary. Unions are currently are best weapon for democracy.

[HiPointDem]

3. kr

[Ezlivin]

4. "Where we're going, we don't need unions."

And as soon as the non-unionized workforce can be replaced with robots, the people won't be needed either.

The future, once portrayed as one filled with leisure as the work week shortened, will instead be a grim existence for the many humans who can't find employment.

[daybranch]

10. not true

abuses of power by employers will always lead to unionization. Saying there will not be unions is like saying conservative billionaires are the good guys.

[pocoloco]

11. Got dinosaur?

Social Darwinism at work!

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. No unions = no middle class, huge income inequality, and huge trade deficits

which in turn equal unstable, unsustainable economy.

Duh. America is wrong about unions. Way wrong.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. That's been the plan all along. nt

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!!

[davidpdx]

8. Unions are becoming extinct in the US

It's only going to get worse with so many Republican governors.

[TheKentuckian]

12. Important story.

[Brickbat]

13. It's a total shell game.

Those jobs brought people who couldn't or didn't want to go to college into the middle class. Now those jobs are being taken away and a college education is touted as the path to middle class. Sorry! You're going to have to find a way to pay for college! And get a degree you don't want! Good luck with that!

[Brickbat]

14. And, not only that, but some of the "bouncing back" is helped by concessions that unions have made

in the hard times. And when the unions come back and say, "OK, things are going better, let's unfreeze wages or resume retirement contributions or hire more workers," the companies laugh in their faces. It's time to dust off direct action.

[Demo_Chris]

15. Well... we wanted NAFTA right?

It wasn't MY generation of course, but it was my party.

The generation that did this inherited an economy overflowing with high paying jobs, unions, benefits, pensions, affordable or free healthcare -- the works really -- all bought for them with the blood and sacrifice of their union parents and grandparents. They could have protected it, but they didn't care. And let's be honest here, many of them still don't.