In conversations with a few people, I’ve had the feeling that the underlying point about the union’s involvement in the auto industry collapse hasn’t quite hit. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t really explained that the problem is due to xenophobia, in essence. The union workers have been afraid of how new things (processes, technologies, etc.) will affect their jobs.
As a result, the union has been one of the hurdles toward producing better cars.
Here is where I could go on a long diatribe about suspension design in SUVs versus passenger cars and explain how the union has fought for the simplicity of SUV designs because they help ensure employment for everyone in the union.
But I won’t.
Instead, I’m gonna lay some pipe.
More accurately, I am NOT gonna lay some pipe because I live in Chicago where I am, by law, not allowed to.
As you probably know, Chicago is a union town. Darn near everything in Chicago has an associated union. I believe I might have earnings coming to me because I baked some 7-layer bars recently, and that automatically makes me a member of the Tiered Bar Workers of the World Local 532.
One of the more powerful unions in Chicago is the Pipefitters Union. These dudes (and yes, they’re basically all dudes) are plumbers.
Now, the Pipefitters are very protective of their workers, as most unions are. They want to make sure that their members will have work, will get paid fair wages, have benefits, blah blah blah.
So, the Pipefitters have informed Chicago’s building code quite a bit. This is pretty reasonable. If you want to know the right way to do something, you’ll talk to the experts in the field. In this case, plumbers.
But since they are experts in plumbing, they also know some specifics that will take money off their table. As a result, they’re able to get the building code designed to keep them in business.
How does this affect Chicagoans?
It means we can’t sweat a joint.
Let’s say I want to re-plumb my entire house. It was built in the ’20s and uses black pipe throughout. The black pipe is rusty, I’m getting brown stains in the sink. Blech.
Let’s say I also know how to do plumbing, and I’ve decided that I want to use something that’s better than black pipe. I also want to use something cheaper and easier to run through existing construction.
I’ll take PEX, a flexible PVC variant that is now extremely reliable. Great in cold weather, and is about 1200 times less thermally conductive than black pipe. Perfect! I’ll even save money on my water heater because I won’t waste cash heating my pipes when I turn the hot water on!
Well, you can’t use PEX.
First off, this is a "Pipefitters" union, and PEX isn’t quite pipe-y enough. It’s cheaper to install, which means a lower margin for the plumbers. The also argue that it’s an unproven technology–it’s only been around 20 years.
Okay, I’ll try CPVC. It’s 2500 times less thermally conductive than copper, and even though it’s not as flexible as PEX, I’ll still have fewer joints than copper or black pipe. My pipes will never burst if they freeze, and CPVC has been in continuous use for over 50 years.
Nope, CPVC is a no go as well. It’s also cheaper, and even though it’s a significantly better choice for Chicago’s weather than metal piping, it just won’t fly.
Fine, I’ll do it with copper pipe. I can run all the pipe myself, and I know how to sweat the joints of the pipe together with solder. I can then know where all my pipes are and will be able to fix them if the pipes burst due to the weather.
Yes and no: You can run the copper pipe, but you can’t run it yourself. You HAVE to hire someone from the Pipefitters Union, or else your residence can be condemned.
So now I have to pay significantly more for an inferior product that I can’t install myself. You can’t even find pipe in Home Depot because it’s illegal to sell pipe (any pressurized plumbing variety) to consumers in Chicago.
Why is this the case?
This approach supposedly protects its employees. Admittedly, these laws don’t affect many people. Few folks are interested in replumbing, and even fewer are going to take the time to investigate alternate plumbing materials themselves when they are going to hire someone to do the work anyway.
But the process of preventing advancement and adoption of new technologies has been set in motion. Rather than accepting that copper and black pipe will eventually be phased out and preparing for that, the union has strong-armed Chicago into being permanently stuck in the 1960s. At least, as far as plumbing goes. And plumber’s fashions.
Although I have no research for this, this approach is most likely already causing problems for union members. With the cost of iron and copper going through the roof recently, many home-builders are looking for ways to bring their costs down. With the housing market in turmoil, I would imagine that the increased cost of materials and labor in Chicago makes this area less appealing for new construction.
Additionally, with lower funds available for maintenance/upgrade projects, people are more likely to accept problems with their existing work rather than spend the outrageous sums for replumbing their house. Honestly, the cost difference between replumbing with copper pipe versus PEX is enormous–something like 10-20 times as much for the copper.
So, fear of losing work due to a new technology or process combined with a monopoly on the labor force has allowed the Pipefitters Union in Chicago to keep us stuck in the past with higher costs, less quality, inflexible regulations, and poor customer service.
Sounds familiar….
Yr fthfl bddy,
Mike
It’s all about cost effectiveness
I still think the unions’ involvement in the auto industry collapse falls under the same umbrella argument I’ve stood by – everyone from execs and shareholders to workers and consumers aren’t willing to endure and/or absorb the overhead and cost of innovative change and new technologies that have substantial long-term benefits when profits can still be maximized under the traditional industry and market.
Even if it means following that industry right over the proverbial cliff.
Re: It’s all about cost effectiveness
That’s exactly it. Though, I would add that the problem relates more to the lack of innovative business process change than new technology. Without the ability to adopt to new business processes everything else gets thrown out the window. So no matter how great a new technology is, if your company can’t adopt it due to poor business practices then nothing will come of it.
In the City…
First off, this city is so mired in everyday corruption and graft, dozens of laws like this exist. For instance, have you ever heard of the “Wine and Spirits Fair Dealing Act”, otherwise known as the “Wirtz Law”? It was championed by William Wirtz, owner of a giant liquor distributor.
The law stated that distillers and brewers could not leave a distributor without showing just cause. Ira Glass mentioned it in passing on his show, saying that a local assemblyman said to him it was an example of a law that couldn’t pass because it was so obviously graft in action.
It passed.
It took a US District Court judge to strike the law down.
The second thing is that this is a prime example of how unions have become divorced from their actual goals. Rather than remaining focused on fair treatment and worker’s rights, they’ve tried to pre-emptively keep their members fat and happy by implementing crazy by-laws and stipulations.
Any union member has examples of crazy rules they have to follow to keep things running. My father wasn’t allowed to talk to his wife at work because she was a part-time, non-union driver and he was a full-time union driver.
Re: In the City…
That’s insane–both examples. Thanks for mentioning the Wirtz Law–I’ll hafta check into that.
As far as your dad not being allowed to talk to your mom while at work… well, turns out to have not been an issue. (OH!)
But seriously, that’s an insanely moronic rule. It just continues to promote this antagonistic relationship that exists in unionized businesses. Awful.
Re: In the City…
Mike:
My neighbor a few doors away is the daughter of WWW. Mrs. WWW frequents the neighborhood and has lopsided opinions on everything. I’ve seen Rocky Wirtz over there a few times. Kelso jumped on his Bentley. Thank God it was a new Bentley.
The daughter is a lovely person, and it just goes to show you can’t pick your relatives.
So… if you look back to how and why unions got started, an obvious question begins to form. The unions formed as an alternative to rampant, gross abuses of the workforce. And, in a great, sick irony, many of these abuses are available today, in the same industry that made it all so famously ugly (meat processing).
I’m not going to propose anything mad like “Are we going to let the whole economy go down the drain just to protect a few individuals from exploitation?!” because that’s beyond simplistic, and fairly far from the point. But where DO we draw a line and acknowledge that this “worker’s protection” is, in fact, spreading a surprising amount of discomfort around? Is there no middle ground? Is there no “right answer”?
(Admitted, there probably is no right answer. It’s rhetorical.)
That’s a great question, and I don’t know. You’re right that we can’t let the economy collapse to protect a handful of folks from exploitation (and, in a way, this includes management).
The key to resolving these issues, I believe, lies in the reason why the unions were created in the first place. As you said, there were rampant, gross abuses of the workforce.
These abuses were the result of management not recognizing the value of its employees. To them these were just bodies being thrown at a problem. More problems? Throw more bodies at it. This capitulation can be summarized with, “work harder, not smarter.”
We only need to look at the result of this mentality–antagonistic workforce relationships, higher costs of employment, lack of quality practices–to see that the costs are huge.
There’s a secondary cost factor here that is also not appreciated. The act of hiring someone gives them value in the workforce. So, even if McDonald’s hires unskilled, untrained laborers, those workers emerge has more skilled and trained than before. McDonald’s has added value to these individuals.
That value comes at a cost: Time spent training, on the job experience, etc. This is paid by the company. So, when they treat their workers as valueless then they are disregarding a cost center in their own business.
(While I’m on this topic, it is also the reason why I think that replacing workers with temps is a completely moronic thing to do. Where does your investment go? Nowhere.)
Okay, so, management didn’t recognize the value of their workers. Therefore, the workers realized their own value (as they should) and formed a union.
Unfortunately, the unions are in a necessarily contentious relationship with management due to this history.
The problem is that that just doesn’t work. Perhaps the greatest key to a successful business is personal investment of the employees.
Each individual employee needs to feel that THEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Through stupid rules such as not being allowed to talk to non-union employees as Chris mentioned, or having to send any information regarding quality and safety through a union committee you are eroding the personal investment of the employees.
If the union comes first and not your employer, then your business will fail.
If management does not recognize the value of their employees, then the business will fail.
Dunno if this answers your question, but I think it illustrates a path toward resolving some of these problems. (If it makes a difference, these are philosophies I have employed in my dealings with direct reports and vendors–it’s made an enormous impact.)
I guess in my little utopian vision of the world, employers who value their employees make the unions obsolete. Instead, employers have actually come to see the employees as a challenge and detriment to the all-holy bottom line. I find this utterly baffling, but it’s shown again and again. Layoffs in response to the quarterly shareholder report. Cutting benefits (especially health care)… because employees who aren’t healthy and can’t afford to be sick are somehow the better option? No wonder the unions have an easy sell to the employees. And the businesses aren’t really willing/able to compete with that. The employees would have to vote to disband the union, which rarely happens.
If employees are such an expensive, disposable, depreciating asset… cut out the middle man and quit hiring. (Yeah, I know, I know. I just get exasperated.)
One of the things that really burned me out on corporate work, and led directly to me leaving it, was this attitude toward employees. It was almost as if the companies felt that the employees owed an eternal debt of gratitude, and possibly indentured service, because they were granted the grace of a job. Also, it eventually became clear that the company I worked for was more than capable of delivering trivial encouragements (say, a pizza party to celebrate work well done) while planning to lay off the whole group. As I was middle management at the time, that really was giving me mental ulcers.
You’re absolutely right on about one of the big problems with many corporations.
Now, take a look at the costs this type of thinking has to a corporation. If you can name one business that has perpetually succeeded while treating their employees horribly I’d be impressed.
The analogy for this type of treatment of employees is buying a building, and then randomly demolishing portions of it when the business is in trouble. The building’s value is diminished, the heating/cooling costs go up, the cost of adding more building is higher than the demolition costs (if they need it back), etc.
If Alambria becomes a success, these are lessons I’m taking with me. I’ve already had success with this approach while managing our Indian development team at Kaplan. Sure, we had problems working with India, but compared to the problems that many other people have, our’s were seemingly trivial.
The key difference in how we worked with India is that we didn’t treat them like contractors. They were as much a part of our company as anyone else. I had phone calls with them every single morning, and we e-mailed each other quite often. As a result, we got higher quality work, more responsiveness, and more opinions from them. Those are three things that people don’t usually say about India.
Hopefully more people will take this approach, because I sincerely believe it’s the right way to handle employees both from a moral and economic viewpoint. Being smart is free.
– Mike
Mike:
Truth be told the vast majority of plumbing work (much of what you were speaking of is actually sewer work) isn’t done by Unions. It is done (mostly) by licensed plumbers, but you have to be building something bigger than Ta’Quanda’s ass to have Unions sit up and take note.
As far as CPVC, while you are right about it’s thermal properties it is much noisier(when last nights lasagna is cannonballing through it at 75fps than (Cast iron or copper) plastic.
Plus, the union claims it is very easy to drill through PVC, CPVC. I’ve drilled through both and they aren’t substantially different and caused the exact same words from the homeowner.
I’m not a plumber, but I do like to interfere with most tradesmen.
I’ve built hundreds of homes additions, condo buildings and a few commercial buildings and never used Union labor. They have brought out the inflatable rat to a couple of my sites, but they never stay longer than a day.
No plastic pipe is allowable for potable water. PEX is legal for radiant heating, in fact it is the preferred medium for delivering heated water. The nylon reinforced PEX is especially good stuff. Working a house with PEX might not be as easy as you think. It requires special fittings, special tools, and a little special knowledge. As you might imagine with PEX, it can be crushed by over zealous fitting installers.
PVC IS allowed in Chicago for DWW systems up to 3″. This means all your drains and vents can be (and usually are) PVC.PVC cannot be used for blackwater, supply lines of any kind of size. Unless you happen to live in Lake Forest. They require copper vents. God knows why, but it is a frequent unpleasant surprise to bidders unfamiliar with this idiotic rule.
Plastic is allowed in both inside and outside of foundation footings. It must be sleeved in nylon mesh (because it is pick-up pipe and water is designed to trickle in) Typically the inside and outside are connected andboth diverted to a sump pump. Ejector pumps are used where gravity won’t do the trick and oddly enough, the connections from ejector pits can be PVC!
Enough of this. I need caffeine