Has the situation in Alabama gotten better over time? Have the Alabama workers been able to negotiate for more protections/better pay?
Because that’s the explanation for why offshoring to countries with fewer regulations is a good thing. Yeah it’s tough at the beginning, but it theoretically gives the workers leverage over the company because there aren’t any cheaper sources of labor. It’s supposed to give the cheapest labor the option to grow a pro-labor movement.
Nope. It's weird because the company I worked for years ago still to this day spends a great deal of time and energy promoting anti-union stances and making sure the employees know that unions are bad for them.
But at the same time, the company adopts a lot of union practices. For example, they pay based on tenure and not performance. So it doesn't matter how productive you are. You could be the single most productive individual on your line, but the guy who has been there longer is going to get paid more. Even though that guy is likely rather less productive than you.
But these companies pay so poorly that the only people applying for these jobs are people straight out of jail/prison.
When I ran the CNC line, there were ~350 people on the floor between the two 12 hour shifts. Of those ~350, there were only two of us that had never been to state or federal prison.
So the company knows that they have these employees right where they want them. The employees are too afraid to organize or even speak out.
I have to wonder what kind of kickbacks they get for employing those people, or whether they have a work program based in whole or part on slave labor (quite common in a number of places, slavery isn't illegal for those who have been incarcerated).
Markets can't compete with slave labor, which explains why monopoly and other socialist practices take hold. Corruption has a long arm.
Because that’s the explanation for why offshoring to countries with fewer regulations is a good thing. Yeah it’s tough at the beginning, but it theoretically gives the workers leverage over the company because there aren’t any cheaper sources of labor. It’s supposed to give the cheapest labor the option to grow a pro-labor movement.