Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Ever wondered what a modern UAW contract looks like? Pictured below is all 22 pounds of Ford’s 2,215 page 2007 master contract with the UAW.
What a difference sixty years makes. Pictured below is the 1941 Ford-UAW contract, which easily fits in the palm of your hand.
It measures about 3.5 inches by 5 inches, and is shown below with a 5-inch pen and 2-inch paper clip. 
Here's a side shot to show its thickness - only 24 pages long.
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
13 Comments:
It can't be inflation because $24 in 1941, would be $334.56 in 2007 dollars.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
I wonder if the 1941 actually could be adopted as-is for 2008. Does it refer to the work negroes are permitted to perform? How about gender equality? Something tells me that in the 2191 new pages, there are at least SOME improvements over the old version.
I think I'll agree with the unstated point though. Bloat does not efficiency promote.
Lawyers' performance bonus and salaries are based on number of billable hours. If you can bill 5 hours per page @ $225/hr then that's $498,375, or half a million dollars your team brought in for the company that year/month.
Holy yowahs!
--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com
Who says an infinite number of monkees can't be productive? This document is some of their best work!
Let's see what Ford-UAW bureaucracy is doing these days to get the company competitive and efficient, shall we?:
http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2009/01/04/union-bosses-get-100000-per-year-for-beer-bowling-and-haircuts/
I suspect those gender and racial issues misterjosh refers to could be resolved by actually removing the offending passages - not addition. And since federal law already provides the protections in the 1964 CRA - why repeat them redundantly in the contract.
Anonymous, you can watch the video of the Ford UAW bosses buying beer from WDIV-Detroit. I have it linked near the top of my site www.OaklandPolitics.com .
As to monkeys - the saying is that they couldn't (or could if the number were infinite) reproduce a work of Shakespeare. Shakespeare would be appalled at this hominid attempt. How would a line worker even understand this crap.
Lets compare a CEO contract from an American Company versus Japan.
Lets see a contract with a supplier.
Lets see a contract of a public servant.
Lets see the NAFT contract.
Everyone has contracts but when it comes to Labor... everybody get their underwear in a bunch.
Ok tjefferson,
I'll compare a contract with a private, non-unionized firm I worked for years ago.
We filled out a w2, etc., I signed an "at-will" sheet of paper acknowledging I knew I was at will, and signed a paper acknowledging receipt of an employee handbook (ironically, the handbook probably gave employees certain rights through the expectations of fair treatment it created, but that's left to those good employment law lawyers to enforce). The handbook was probably about the same size as the 1941 - and contained mostly common-sense conduct rules and some procedural stuff.
Now I'll grant the auto industry is more complex and there are more job descriptions throughout a company that might be included in that UAW contract that might require some extra pages to deal with compared to 60 years ago, but its not that complex. Common-sense rules and conduct has been replaced with hyper-legal nuances and lists of every imaginable thing.
Chetly Zarco
The Auto industry doesn't need to be complex, as a matter a fact if you looked deeper you would find what "is" actually "negotiated and Contractual" the the stack would be much smaller. The other stuff is what keeps the lawyers rich letters of intent, and cover thy ass stuff. I could put my tin hat on and tell you it looks like the photo used 50 bond paper to make the stack look taller. I was a Union Rep.and can show you the appx. 200 pages I used.
The difference, t jefferson, is that Big Labor doesn't produce anything. Much like the Government. They only take.
Lounge dady
your right they are paper shufflers,and good golfers from what I hear. Those people don't add any value.
That's a mighty big paperclip you have there, mark!
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