A Teacher's Guide in How to Kill Union Organizing Without Leaving A Mark

Okay, class, let’s critique the following paragraph from an article in the 2/19/11 New York Times by Nick Bunkley, “Hyundai Lifts Alabama” to see if it suggests more than it seems to. Examine each sentence, its meaning and placement in the paragraph to determine what the writer is trying to say. See how an “objective” news story can subtly convey a point of view:

“For more than a year, workers at the Hyundai plant have been putting in 10 hours of overtime a week as part of their regular schedule, plus occasional Saturdays. With an average regular wage of about $20 an hour, the additional overtime hours mean workers here are earning more than many workers at the unionized plants up north. The United Automobile Workers union has long tried to organize plants in the United States operated by foreign carmakers, most of which are in the South, but has yet to succeed anywhere.”

There is a contradiction in the first sentence of the paragraph from the writer:

“For more than a year, workers at the Hyundai plant have been putting in 10 hours of overtime a week as part of their regular schedule.” If that’s true, then their regular schedule is 50 hours a week.

“With an average regular wage of about $20 an hour, the additional overtime hours mean workers here are earning more than many workers at the unionized plants up north.”

Is that true? Not according to the General Motors hourly pay scale
website. GM received a loan from the U.S. and paid it back with profits to spare. It's sharing those profits with its union workers who have conceded so much in the past and have worked so hard to make the company profitable again. GM didn't receive a bailout, it received a loan. (I'm reiterating this point because it seems to get muddled in the retelling).

The writer goes on to say:

“The United Automobile Workers union has long tried to organize plants in the United States operated by foreign carmakers, most of which are in the South, but has yet to succeed anywhere.”

The implication is that the workers are so happy that the UAW cannot make inroads. It raises questions such as: what kind of worker protections are there? What if there is a dispute with management? Are conditions hazardous? And so forth.

This article can stand as an example of how to diminish expectations in the labor market when times are tough and people are scrambling for jobs; in actuality they are not competing against each other, they are competing against cheaper labor in the global economy