Local Dealership Handles Union Dispute A Bit Differently

by Jack Baruth

Published: March 16th, 2014

local dealership handles union dispute a bit differently

When Subaru of Wichita hired a non-union drywall hanger to assist with the construction of its new location, the United Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Joiners Of America Local 201 protested by having people stand outside the dealership with a sign that says, “SHAME ON SUBARU OF WICHITA”. So the owner of the dealership had an idea.

You can see the photo here but I’ll spare you the click if you want: the new sign is being held by people standing right next to the people holding the other sign, it’s in the same font and color scheme, and it says “FOR HAVING UNBEATABLE PRICES”.

Authentic LOL. The Wichita Eagle (not to be confused with the Texas Eagle, which is a Steve Earle song about growing up) has more:

[The dealership PR rep] says Subaru respects the union’s right to protest.

“We’ve actually given them lunch. We’ve invited them to visit our facilities.”

Wirtz says he’s convinced the people with the sign are simply hired by the union to stand there.

“It doesn’t really look like they want to be here anymore than we want them to be here, to be quite frank.”

He says they won’t discuss what’s going on.

“We don’t do comments or anything like that,” says Carpenters representative Chad Mabin.

Instead, he refers to a union flier with a drawing of a rat that appears to be eating an American flag.

While this seems like a minor dispute, it’s worth remarking on the fact that the power of blue-collar organizer labor has sunk in this country to the point where a dealership principal can safely mock a union that is protesting his business. Fifty years ago his shop probably would have burned to the ground overnight. I wrote a piece about a jewelry-store protest a while back, and most of it’s still true. Nobody cares about union “shame” any more. They have problems of their own, and they no longer think that a dictatorship of the proletariat will fix them.

Jack Baruth

More by Jack Baruth

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 97 comments

Jimal on Mar 17, 2014

Oh great, another union debate. I'm sure some fresh concepts will be introduced and some minds will be changed... Guess I'm back to reading less.

Like Reply
05lgt on Mar 17, 2014

Dang Jack, just got back from your Office Space, American Beauty, Clueless tribute and you do seem pissed. I remember when there used to be work done to jump through the H1B loopholes, I was temping in IT for an HR group that mostly solicited resumes to “prove” they needed to import the talent replacing the laid off at will natives. I guess they streamlined the process since then. Not that the fig leaf protected anyone’s income. The fresh PhD’s didn’t have experience, and the seasoned ones weren’t current. Somehow the Indian import was always medium heat porridge. In my current ‘hood my next door neighbors moved back to India walking away from Intel bucks so they could get their kids into a “decent school”. I’m hating the public unions now… (edited to correct horrrific spelling)

Like Reply
- Spreadsheet monkey on Jul 29, 2014
  
  That H1B story on Jack's site was the best thing I've read on the internet for ages.
  
  Like

Recent Comments

Parkave231 Should have changed it to the Polonia!
Analoggrotto Junior Soprano lol
GrumpyOldMan The "Junior" name was good enough for the German DKW in 1959-1963:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKW_Junior
Philip I love seeing these stories regarding concepts that I have vague memories of from collector magazines, books, etc (usually by the esteemed Richard Langworth who I credit for most of my car history knowledge!!!). On a tangent here, I remember reading Lee Iacocca's autobiography in the late 1980s, and being impressed, though on a second reading, my older and self realized why Henry Ford II must have found him irritating. He took credit for and boasted about everything successful being his alone, and sidestepped anything that was unsuccessful. Although a very interesting about some of the history of the US car industry from the 1950s through the 1980s, one needs to remind oneself of the subjective recounting in this book. Iacocca mentioned Henry II's motto "Never complain; never explain" which is basically the M.O. of the Royal Family, so few heard his side of the story. I first began to question Iacocca's rationale when he calls himself "The Father of the Mustang". He even said how so many people have taken credit for the Mustang that he would hate to be seen in public with the mother. To me, much of the Mustang's success needs to be credited to the DESIGNER Joe Oros. If the car did not have that iconic appearance, it wouldn't have become an icon. Of course accounting (making it affordable), marketing (identifying and understanding the car's market) and engineering (building a car from a Falcon base to meet the cost and marketing goals) were also instrumental, as well as Iacocca's leadership....but truth be told, I don't give him much credit at all. If he did it all, it would have looked as dowdy as a 1980s K-car. He simply did not grasp car style and design like a Bill Mitchell or John Delorean at GM. Hell, in the same book he claims credit for the Brougham era four-door Thunderbird with landau bars (ugh) and putting a "Rolls-Royce grille" on the Continental Mark III. Interesting ideas, but made the cars look chintzy, old-fashioned and pretentious. Dean Martin found them cool as "Matt Helm" in the late 1960s, but he was already well into middle age by then. It's hard not to laugh at these cartoon vehicles.
Dwford The real crime is not bringing this EV to the US (along with the Jeep Avenger EV)