Union Apprenticeships Win

Posted by stephens on May 26, 2009 in Rants | 0 comments

There were postings recently on a LinkedIn tooling “professionals” group that victimized management because of unionized labor. (Disclosure: I am a former UAW member AND former management for an automotive OEM)

Unions had their place in time. This is not in dispute. The dispute is the perception of lazy, uneducated people that exponentially inflate the cost of union-made products. This is way off base and not justified.

I do not want to debate the stereotypes or the philosophy behind unions.

However, I would like to point out that the UAW did perform an invaluable service that no other entity has: bona fide apprenticeship programs for skilled trades.

The backbone of the UAW and OEMs alike have been their skilled trades workforce. The UAW created apprenticeship progams for their skilled trades that was second to none anywhere on the planet. These programs produced more talent than any other method of training or education for this type of work, including die engineering.

In my worldly travels, I can attest to the fact that there is a small group of  die engineers that are products of the UAW and can out engineer anyone in the industry in the world. They design circles around the college-educated, anti-union pundits that have a narrow view of the world and no real-world experience to back it up.

I, for one, can back it up. I have been on both sides of the equation. There are downsides to everything. I would gladly trade the union downsides for the one upside that makes a lasting difference: apprenticeship programs.