When even the French are getting tired of unions, you know you’re in trouble:

Newspaper and television opinion polls released Wednesday show dwindling French public support for unions that for decades have shut down services to thwart government efforts to reduce pensions or shrink government institutions.

In a survey conducted for the daily newspaper Le Figaro — which is generally pro-Sarkozy — and television network LCI, nearly seven of every 10 people polled said the strikes were unjustified.

[…]

Natalie Levy, wearing a skirt and black high-heeled pumps, attempted to negotiate a crowded rush-hour sidewalk aboard her son’s scooter Wednesday morning. She hit a gaping crack in the concrete, wobbled and snapped a heel.

In no mood to sympathize with the unions or the government, she groused: “The unions are selfish and the government is spineless. How is Sarkozy going to reform the country and make workers more productive when he can’t even get us to our jobs?”

Clearly, they need a strike buster, a strong leader that can face the transportation industry, look them straight in the eye, and say, “Go ahead, make my day.” Someone like… Reagan.

In all seriousness, what’s truly fascinating about this chain of events is that France is a full 25 years behind England and the U.S., both of whom went through a correction in labor policies in the late 1970s and early 1980s under Reagan and Thatcher. That the French people are losing sympathy for the unions is also interesting, and definitely worth following.

I read an interesting editorial at The Truth about Cars titled, “In Defense of: The Big Three“:

I’d just slipped the nozzle into my Cadillac XLR-V. A dark Merc SL550 rolled up, its driver eyeing my Bowling Green Batmobile. As he busied himself with the credit card ritual, every few seconds his eyes darted sideways to the Caddy. “Mind if I look inside?” He sat behind the wheel, running his fingers across the interior surfaces. “Nice,” he pronounced. “Comfortable. And it’s easy to see out. There isn’t as much storage as my SL, but I’d be OK with that.” As he exited the XLR-V, he issued his verdict: “I wish I had the courage.”

“It’s been completely reliable,” I assured the SL guy, figuring he was wary of GM’s reputation for mechanical “mishaps.” “I’ve had it for over 23,000 miles without any problems.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I wish I had the courage to buy a car I’d have to explain to my friends. I love the style; I really admire it. But no one would understand if I bought a Cadillac. You have more guts than me.”

After that anecdote, the editorial goes into various reasons to consider buying domestic when shopping for your next car, some of them better than others.

Disclaimer: I drive a domestic. In fact, I’ve been driving a domestic of some sort since 1998. Here’s a quick rundown of the cars:

1994 Dodge Shadow 2.2L (purchased in ‘98, sold in ‘03): Had 73k miles on it when I got it, 112k miles on it when I sold it for a third of what I bought it for five years later. The car didn’t run half the time, though much of this was my fault - I didn’t have the time, money, or inclination to take decent care of this car. That said, it was underpowered (how Dodge got away with selling an engine they threw together for the original K-Car back in ‘81 in a ‘94 is beyond me), didn’t get particularly good gas mileage (22 city, 28 highway), was noisy, and routinely developed various leaks. My personal favorite was the valve cover gasket. That said, it did teach me a lot about how to fix a car - the engine compartment was surprisingly spacious. It also could haul a lot of stuff, thanks to the fold-down rear seat, which came in handy whenever I moved into or out of my dorm room.

1994 Chrysler Concorde (donated to me by my Grandma in ‘03, donated by me to my ex-wife a few months later when we got divorced): Great car. The ex still drives it. However, the paint is getting dull and faded and the trim is falling apart. The power windows barely work on it anymore. Much of this is because the ex is ignoring it, as a single mother with a four-year-old would be inclined to do, or so I hope.

1989 Mercury Cougar (donated to me by my ex’s folks in ‘03, sold in ‘04): This car made me miss the Shadow. Within the first week of driving it, it began to leak oil from the oil sender unit on to the engine block. That it happened on the way to San Diego didn’t help. This was only the tip of the iceberg, however…

- The regulator on the alternator went out, causing the electronic dash to either get insanely bright or impossibly dim.
- The driver side door hinge became weak, causing the door to sag.
- I became so adept at re-attaching the glass window to the power window motor unit that a friend of mine and I did it at the side of the road in under five minutes. Failing to do this would cause the window to sag into the door frame if I accidentally forgot that the window didn’t work.
- The car started burning coolant at higher RPMs. It only had 80k miles on it.

I was thankful to get $600 for it.

1990 Chevrolet Lumina (purchased in ‘04, wrecked in ‘05): This, sadly, is probably one of the better cars I’ve owned. I say “sadly” because it’s really not saying much. That said, it was pretty reliable. I bought it for $800 from a non-profit who would’ve been thankful to get half that, took it into the shop to replace the power steering pump that compelled the original owner to donate it to charity in the first place, and proceeded to drive it until I drove it into a concrete wall. The only problem I had with it, mechanically speaking, was a pernicious coolant leak that I eventually found out was coming from a hose at the bottom of the engine. Seeing as it was 14 years old when I got it, I wasn’t going to complain. That said…

- The car did not have a trip meter. Seriously.
- The car did not have a temperature gauge. It did have an idiot light.
- The plastic attachment on the driver’s side door that covered the power windows kept falling off.
- It needed regular brake jobs in the worst possible way. I drove that thing about 30k miles before I wrecked it and I had to change the brakes three times because the rotors kept warping. Apparently, the one area that Chevy didn’t go cheap on was putting all-disc brakes on the car, which was revolutionary at the time. Unfortunately, they found a way to cheapen even that and made them too small. Oops!

Though it was a good car and was reasonably mechanically sound, everything inside of it made me want to cringe. No trip meter? What, was the extra $3 too much? No temperature gauge? Huh? My friend’s Ford Tempo was more refined than this thing.

1976 Plymouth Fury (purchased in ‘05, donated back in ‘05): After wrecking the Lumina, I needed a car in the worst possible way. The same non-profit that sold me the Lumina had this old Fury that appeared in decent shape - almost no rust on the body (a little at one of the corners, but nothing serious) and the engine ran. How much, I asked? $200. Sold.

Wow.

If you weren’t old enough (like me) to understand precisely how we got to the point that people need to write articles about why people should consider domestics, find an old ’70s American car. It will show you everything you ever needed to know about why people bought Japanese. Simply put, it was out of desperation. Where to begin with this thing…

- This car was almost as wide as it was long (and it was plenty wide), yet it had almost no space in the back seat and there was surprisingly little room in the trunk. Apparently, most of the space on this body type was taken by the fuel tank (all 22 gallons of it), which fed the 360 CID V8 under the hood. Coincidentally, that 360 is the same displacement used by large Dodge Ram trucks.
- The car must’ve weighed a ton. Everything was steel. Yet, despite that, the tie rods on it were no thicker than the ones on the Lumina. This would probably explain why the Fury never drove straight.
- It was gutless, but don’t blame the engine. Chrysler apparently thought it’d be fun to put a 2.4 rear axle on the thing, probably so it had a fighting chance to squeak out the 16 MPG I got out of it. The gear ratios didn’t help; the poor thing was geared to lug its way on to the freeway, after which it would find its power band. I think my Dakota could out-run and out-accelerate it, and I have a V6 in it… provided I kept the contest under 70. That car had some guts once you got it over 70.
- Before I got the car registered, I was pulled over three times over the course of a month. I had my temporary registration sticker in the right spot; however, there’s apparently something about driving a gigantic baby blue beater in Reno that convinces that cops that you’re worth investigating.

Honestly, the only redeeming feature about this car was that it was so irredeemable that it was almost cool. Almost. One day, about a month after I got it, I started the car up to get it warmed up, at which point I started hearing a new clacking noise from the engine compartment. A quick trip to the mechanic revealed what I already knew - the valves were going. I was done. It was still cheaper than renting a car, though. That said, the entire design was abhorrent. It was big, but had no room. When I had passengers, someone would usually just sit in the middle of the bench seat up front. Then again, unlike my Dakota, there was room up there for three people to sit comfortably, even if they were on the “beefier” side.

No, it didn’t have an 8-track player. I was sorely disappointed.

1993 Dodge Dakota (donated from my grandma in ‘06, still driving): This is my current ride. My dear, sweet grandma donated it to me with 32,000 miles on it, a fresh coat of paint, a spray-on “Rhino Lining” bed liner, and rust in the coolant tank. I have had my fair share of problems with it, mostly owing to me putting 35k miles every year on a truck that had 32k miles on it when I got it after 13 years of service - most of the wheel seals have been replaced and I had the transfer case rebuilt after a leak in it dumped all of the lubricant in there. I also flushed the radiator, only to find that it was the rust that was keeping it together, so it now has a new radiator in there. Past that, though, the engine has been pretty solid, if not terribly remarkable. The plastic is a little cheap in there - you can tell where some of it is cracking by the glove box. But, it’s easy to clean (small cabin, vinyl floors), easy to fix, and it’s paid for, so I’m not complaining.

Where am I going with all of this? Glad you asked.

If I bought that ‘76 Fury when it was new and compared it to the ‘76 Datsun B210 that a friend of mine had in high school, yeah, I’d be pissed, too. Sure, the Datsun was much smaller and much slower, but at least its design made sense. Everything was laid out halfway cleanly, there was about as much trunk space as you would expect, and, to be honest, it even ran better. When you hit the gas in the B210, you weren’t going fast because the B210 was not a fast car. When you hit the gas in the Fury, you weren’t going fast because you could tell that somebody, somewhere, decided to chop block your car at the knees. When you sat in the B210, yeah, everything was cheap, but you had reclining seats. When you sat in the Fury, you learned by reading the manual that reclining seats were an option. When you sat in the back of the B210, you didn’t have much leg room - it was a small car. When you sat in the back of the Fury, you had the same amount of leg room as the B210. Huh? So, yeah, if I was alive and buying cars in the ’70s, you bet your ass I’d hate domestics with the fury of a thousand suns (pardon the expression), and I’m not about to begrudge anyone else that feels the same way. American cars were crap - no, they were worse than crap, and that’s why the Japanese did so well. My ex-step-dad’s old 1980 Subaru GL was put together better than the Fury, and, to be honest, better than any American car from 1980 I’ve seen, and it was the cheapest car in America at the time.

That’s why people started to buy Japanese.

If people are going to buy American, Detroit needs to find a way to take a page from Japan and build better cars than the Japanese, and build them cheaper. That’s why Hyundai is selling so many cars suddenly. Unfortunately, we have management in charge of these companies that would rather call reclining seats and trip meters “options” than build better cars, and we have union workers that see the writing on the wall and are trying to milk their employers for everything they’re worth before management does the entire operation in. You want union workers to take lower wages and benefits? Prove to them it’s for a better cause, not for more of these.

I love American cars. My next car will hopefully be an American car. However, considering the crap that’s come from this country in the past, and considering the crap that’s coming from our manufacturers now, I don’t blame others if they decide, rationally and reasonably, that they don’t even want to look our way.

Can you blame them?

DANGER: Post of only moderate coherence is coming. It’s Monday and I’m not feeling terribly intellectual at the moment.

First, they came for the lawyers, and I did nothing. Then, they came for the auto workers, and I did nothing. Who will be there when they come for me?

(Removes tongue from cheek)

Okay, in all seriousness, welcome to the world of supply and demand. We have a lot of lawyers - only the best ones are going to make serious money, and the rest probably shouldn’t assume six figures worth of student loans. This is true of many fields, mine included. I make about mid-five figures right now, which is on the low end of average for my field; this makes sense since Microsoft technicians are a dime a dozen right now. Instead of forming an MCSE union of some sort, though, I’m diversifying, learning skills that are a little more in demand, such as how to maintain Asterisk phone systems and learning more and more about how to manage Linux servers.

Don’t get me wrong. I feel for the auto workers. They work hard. So do roofers and gardeners, and they make about 1/10th of what your average UAW person makes. The difference in wages is easy to explain, though - anyone can be a roofer or a gardener. Being an auto worker is a skilled job, just like being a mechanic. You have to know something. Trouble is, nowadays, we’re not the only people in the world that know something. People in India know stuff, too. Same goes with China, Japan, Europe, most of Southeast Asia, and pretty much the entire Western Hemisphere. We could wall off our borders, throw down tariffs as far as the eye can see, and just buy American, but that would mean DVD players that cost 10 times as much, winter produce that costs 5 times as much, and all for the same quality that we’re getting from China. China would also stop buying our debt, too - if you think your mortgage rates are high now, imagine what they’ll look like if you have to compete with the federal government when you go to borrow money?

First, a confession - I’m a bit of a sports junky. I’m not crazy about it or anything, but I do keep up with the major bulletin points as they happen. Part of that involves visiting ESPN.com periodically. While there, I found an article by Kevin Bryant titled, “In failing Vick, NFL Players Association fails itself“. I was intrigued right off the bat, right up until I read this:

It is unclear whether Upshaw is at the bargaining table now in negotiating a settlement for Vick’s suspension and parameters for — however remote — a potential return to the NFL. He’s vacationing until after Labor Day. But neither Vick nor Pacman Jones nor Tank Johnson is the union’s real issue.

The issue is precedent.

The reason is clear. The responsibility of a union is to defend its membership — every time, all the time, if for no other reasons than to send a dissenting vote to management that its membership always will be protected by a strong union and to alert the commissioner that his powers always will be checked by an advocate for the players. The union’s message should be that a commissioner cannot simply do whatever he wants.

That right there is why unions are a declining power in this country. The mindset that a union must always be adversarial against management, even when management is right, just to show that there is a limit to managerial power is not only ridiculous but counterproductive. What would the NFLPA gain by defending Michael Vick? Nothing - Vick is about to become a convicted felon. He’s going to jail for at least a year, probably more. It’s not like the NFLPA is going to get him a football career in prison, and no fan base in the country would accept him on their team. So, the NFLPA would burn precious political capital and gain… poor PR and a hostile ownership?

Then comes the point…

So the union has an understanding that it won’t be blindsided by a runaway commissioner, adopting a position closer to equity shareholder than skeptical watchdog. It has labor peace and can take comfort in not worrying about losing public goodwill during contract years or losing face should its membership crack during pressurized labor negotiations. The union seems comforted that it is treated as an inside player instead of a hostile entity. But what good is maintaining the peace if it is not accompanied by power?

Noise is not equal to power. The Major League Baseball Player’s Association has made a lot of noise over the years. Where has it taken them? Baseball is becoming increasingly irrelevant while football ratings increase. When records are broken, everyone assumes it has something to do with steroids or human growth hormone. Congress has stepped in where the owners fear to tread, bringing in former players and conducting investigations. Is this really in the best interest of the players? How does having the nation slowly turn their back on their careers and accomplishments aid them? Meanwhile, the NFL is turning what would normally be a PR disaster into a coup - they’ve severely punished Pacman Jones, they’re probably going to expel Michael Vick, and, even though the Michael Vick story couldn’t get much worse, nobody’s going to stop watching football because of it because the NFL took responsibility and dealt with the situation appropriately. Meanwhile, ratings are through the roof, income for the owners and players is increasing quickly and steadily, we have football on the radio and TV almost 24/7/365, and people are clamoring for more.

Who’s approach is really better here?