Shoot the Messenger
When Dennis DesRosiers talks auto industry and points fingers at Windsor, we generally shoot the messenger. In his latest essay, (posted on Chris Vander Doelen’s blog, at the Windsor Star) he levels his criticism at both unions and domestic (Big Three) auto manufacturers for their entitlement mentality, and evolving decline.
I’ve had an up front seat to the rights and wrongs of the auto industry, from a shop floor perspective. I wrote some twenty years ago, that the relationship between unions and companies was poisonous. For all these years nothing has changed. The unions pretend to orchestrate labour peace, and the manufacturers pretend to be satisfied, while sending the bill to the customer. At the same time, a relentless, and near endless efficiency drive has decimated the workforce and been a constant drain on morale. It is a vicious cycle with no end in sight, except when the companies leave us for good. The numbers that remain are closer to that than ever.
Twenty years ago, the threat from Japan was bothersome, but not catastrophic. Since then, as Mr. DesRosiers points out, offshore manufacturers have landed and established a production capacity of 6 million vehicles a year, and climbing.
Does this mean that the North American auto industry is sick and dying? Hardly! These cars are produced here and they employ tens of thousands of North Americans. But the traditional employers, are constantly ceding ground to this invasion.
Is this so bad? It is for Windsor because as the traditional employers vacate, noone in the auto business is repalcing them.