Quote Originally Posted by 313WX View Post
One thing's for certain, he clearly harbors a lot of vitriol hatred for unions, something that helps the working class citizens of the Detroit area maintain what little prosperity they still have. It's sad.

The fact that Detroit area and Michigan in general is unable to attract outside high quality, large scale investments such as the Tesla Gigafactory is really a failure of leadership at the state and local leaders who refuse to proactively go out and sell the positive attributes of the region to companies as well as their unwillingness to spend money on the most basic QOL improvements. It's not the fault of Walt Kowalski who's living paycheck to paycheck to keep a roof over his head and food on his table turning a wrench on the assembly floor at Ford.
No. It isn't Kowalski's fault.

I can't read Musk's mind, but I doubt he hates Unions. I think he really likes control.

Unions limit company control over workers. Conditions of employment. What you can be asked to do.

A guy like Musk wants to be able to introduce a new product line tomorrow. He wants to be able to change everything about how cars get built. He doesn't want legacy thinking. He doesn't want to hear 'that's not allowed under our union contract'.

Most people think employers hate unions. They think it has to do with higher labor costs. No. I was in charge of labor for a union shop. Wages matter of course. But must less than flexibility. Unions abhor flexibility. Unions enforce conformity on both employed AND EMPLOYEES.

Got a better idea of how to bolt a bumper on a car with half the labor. You won't find yourself at the table with the cool kids at the Christmas Party.

Musk wants to run his company. Doesn't want Walter Reuther's opinion.