The big 3 automakers have set this up with the help of others in order to destroy and remove unions from the work force.

These companies intentionally allowed the destruction of their companies in order to get rid of employee led unions and to get us back to where we payed workers 30 cents an hour and no breaks.

I can't prove any of this though.

The Prime Directives for big business, and in particular the Big Three auto companies, are to take care of the stockholders and the workers equally therefore such a scenario could never occur.

That is all.

Oh yeah?

PROVE you can't prove it!

And you want to be my latex salesman ?


Seinfeld

Then it's a conspiracy I can live with.

Many companies survive and flourish just fine without unions.

Unions had their time and were valuable in eliminating slave labor, child labor, making workplaces safe to go to, and to insure the employee was not taken advantage of and received fair and balanced wages and benefits.

$70.00 an hour is not a fair and balanced wage to keep a company profitable.

Unions, like the corporate executives they worked with, got greedy over time. They negotiatied overblown salaries, insane benefits, ridiculous policies like paying someone when they get laid off their same insane salary even though they are contributing NOTHING to the business and it's profit margin. The list goes on.

Unions, like religion, need to evolve and if it comes to pass, become extinct. Their time has come and gone. They did their job and should be honored in history for doing so, and be left in the history books.

Unions did A LOT to help get the automakers where they are right now. $70.00 an hour for an autoworker? WTF? I don't even know doctors at hospitals that make $145,000.00 a year! Even $45.00 an hour is mind blowing. I would not know what I'd do with almost $100,000.00 a year working a 9-5 job!

While they are not THE reason they are where they are, they are an integral part if it happening.

You can't prove it because it isn't true! I get up every morning and go into my low-level management position at one of these companies. Upper management rely on bonuses and stock options for a significant portion of their annual income - none of that happening these days - management wouldn't have created this mess intentionally just to spite the union. The truth behind why the Big 3 are in their current mess is complicated and interwoven with no single primary cause that can be turned into a 1-liner to explain it.

The exploitive jobs didn't get eliminated. They just hired illegals or moved the jobs overseas.

yeah but people flocked to the factory / sweat shops because it paid a hell of a lot more money then what they were getting before working on the farm or being a domestic servant.

The Chinese are now Lamenting the loss of their $250 / month factory jobs.

And did the unions make this happen too? Directly? Indirectly?

I would figure as unions demanded more money and more benefits the owners needed to figure out ways to shift cost by moving plants across the ocean. It would seem again unions orchestrated this happening. But I have no proof of this or anything to back it up, so I must I add this accusation to the standing conspiracy theory being discussed. (unless someone can back up my accusation)

To an extent, we brought this situation upon ourselves.

Capitalism, at least the modern american variety, is a race to the bottom. No conspiracy needed.

They have strong unions in Germany, the unions have seats on the boards of directors of VW, etc.

I think VW is in the top 2 strongest auto companies in the world.

Don't confuse them with facts (or sensible arguments)!

Yeah but people want to buy the things german union workers make.