And this sick sorry saga of blatant union thuggish corruption continues...The Japanese could not understand why we kept signing “free trade” agreements that were not free trade agreements at all. John Howard signed the Thailand free trade agreement, which allowed free entry of Thai motor parts into Australia but whacked huge tariffs and other restrictions on exports of Australian motor parts and cars into Thailand. We were conned.
General Motors in Australia complained that the so-called US “free trade” agreement prevented unfettered access of Australian cars to the United States. Conned again.
In 2013-14, the Japanese believed that the looming Korean — and indeed Japanese — “free trade” deals would see the Australian motor industry unfairly disadvantaged once again.
Australia could overcome the effect of these “free trade” deals with massive subsidies. The Japanese could never work it out and assumed that Australians were either stupid or did not want a motor industry.
There is no doubt the Japanese would never have invested in Australia had they known the dollar was to rise in the wake if the mining investment boom.
It should be remembered that industrial agreements like those in the motor industry were prevalent across Australia. Qantas, the building industry, the steel industry (BlueScope and Arrium) and the food industry all had them.
Qantas made itself a modern airline thanks to chief executive Alan Joyce and his chairman Leigh Clifford; BlueScope did a similar exercise with top managers while Arrium had to go broke to make the changes. Some progress has been made in food thanks to tough action by the main customers, the supermarkets, but there is further to go
In commercial building industry the government is trying the overcome weak managers via legislation.
The paradox in the motor industry is that whereas scale was the main problem plaguing Australian motor making for most of the industry’s life, by 2012-14 that was ceasing to be a problem thanks to robots and the need for smaller scale specialised plants. Our time had come but we were too silly to take advantage.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/robert-gottliebsen/unions-only-... Comments to tickle the Lefties' tonsilsChristine 12 minutes agoHaving worked in the auto industry & having had to deal with the union bosses - I can clearly attest that they operated in a parallel universe. They did not grasp the basics of business, in that you need to make a profit before you can pay the unrealistic ransom demands imposed on the auto companies by the unions. Intimidation, threats, product sabotage, shut downs....they were a normal part of how the unions operated. They helped to send the auto industry & their workers jobs to the wall. The unions are very good at that - no matter the industry!
Wayne 13 minutes agoPreviously Robert had written that the mining boom caused some of this. Tradies doing work for mining jobs were well paid. Unions pulled the 'equal work must have equal pay' message to get higher rates for the manufacturing industry. While the mining industry could afford this, the manufacturing industry could not.
Raymond 20 minutes agoAbout 25 years ago Canada's largest coal mining company held a meeting of all employees asking the employees to make wage concessions to save the company from closing down. Encouraged by the United Mine Workers of America union officials the men rejected the requests, believing that the company was bluffing. At midnight the mine closed down and everybody except the union officials lost their jobs. New competition from Australian coal exporters was a factor but the killer was that the socialist government of the province of British Columbia poured heavy subsidies into starting up a new coal mine further north and the government-subsidized competition halved the exports of the established private enterprise coal company and sent them broke.
Joan 28 minutes agoUnions kill businesses. That’s a fact.
P.S. and Socialist Governments that give them all the power they need.
Paul 32 minutes agoIt is sad and sorry that it has come to this in Australia. The nation could have retained the capacity to continue with manufacture of electric vehicles well into the future, but all is lost to overseas industrial nations.
What is left here? We have ceeded enormous advantage to China and India with their ability to build new power stations. We have lost countless manufacturing businesses either through closure or overseas take over.
We are seeing hoardes of migrants and attempted assylum seekers gravitating here which has placed huge strains on our crumbling infrastructure, roads and suburbs. Hospital services are strained beyond belief and health funds are fraying at the seams because of the drop out rates of members.
Power and energy prices are out of control as against inflation. The crazy thing is that anyone in politics (with the talent and ability to do so) who tried or tries to rectify the causes of these problems is howled down and never able to secure a lasting mandate to set things right.
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