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From: davidg@janus.uucp (David Gaertner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,sci.electronics,comp.arch
Subject: Re: GATT declares U.S. - Japan chip pact illegal
Summary: US labor unions partly responsible
Message-ID: <23499@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 2 Apr 88 21:39:31 GMT
References: <2441@unicus.UUCP> <1259@hubcap.UUCP> <1068@maynard.BSW.COM>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: davidg@janus.UUCP (David Gaertner)
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Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <1068@maynard.BSW.COM> campbell@maynard.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes:
>Let's clear one thing up here, foax (it sure would save time and aggravation
>if people would check the facts before posting):
>
>In article <1259@hubcap.UUCP> rchampe@hubcap.UUCP (Richard Champeaux) writes:
><>                             ... Many people I know say that the Japanese are
><>obviously doing something right, and if US producers can't do the same then
><>they should get out.  In my opinion, I think that the fact that the asian
><>countries have a much cheaper labor force is a significant factor.  US
><>producers obviously can't just cut their employees salaries in half, so some
><>would say that they should get out.
>
>The real problem is the attention to quality in Japan, and the lack of such
>attention here.  As Demming taught the Japanese decades ago, and we slow
>learners in the U.S. still can't get through our thick skulls:
>
>	It's _cheaper_ to do it right the first time!
>
>Especially in extremely quality-sensitive industries like VLSI chips,
>quality up front and throughout the process produces a _cheaper_ product.
>Japan doesn't just produce more DRAMs per _dollar_, they produce more
>DRAMs per _worker_.
>
>And I won't even get into the issue of the quality of the labor force,
>except to remind people that 20% of adult Americans are _illiterate_.
>This is no way to run a high-tech society...

Right on!

Many unions in many industries (not all, and not in all industries,
though) do not ensure that their members are adequately trained to do
the job the union hires them to do.  The unions claim that
apprenticeship is the way the new workers are taught.  This
apprenticeship method replaces trade schools used in Europe and Japan;
the foreign workers are made to go to at least a couple of weeks of
refresher training per year.  American workers are instead informally
trained and poorly trained, as can be seen by the huge problems with
quality and cost- and time-overruns.

Part of this is also managements' fault, in that they don't try to
motivate the regular union workers.  I've heard of union people coming
on to a job to do some work without knowing anything about the entire
project, e.g., electricians working on a garbage-burning power plant
were under the impression that the plant was going to be burning
chemical and nuclear waste!  That's some motivation to do a good job!


    /              /		  	David Gaertner  
 __/ __. , __o  __/ 	...ucbvax!janus!davidg, davidg@janus.berkeley.edu
(_/_(_/|_\/ <__(_/_        Net: n.  holes tied together with a string.