Just having an argument with someone and can use more reinforcements
You also cant leave out the betrayal of the left by the Democrats in the form of the Neoliberal turn in the 70's. It was the Volker shock under Carter that fatally crippled Labor, maybe if the Communists and Anarchists hadn't been purged in the Red Scare then the Labor movement might have had some radical leadership that could challenge that kind of economic attack, but as it stood Business Unionism cant handle that kind of Macroeconomic warfare.
I think it’s not true tbh, at least it’s a very complex interplay of inflation, asian manufacturing, oil prices, stagnant productivity inside usa, and tariffs
what does it mean to hurt US manufacturing?
who is receiving the harm: workers in the form of fewer jobs or lower wages? the capitalists who own manufacturing concerns in terms of profit?
A friend brought up that American manufacturing has obviously declined in this country. I personally think a big role in that is the systemic gutting of unions. His view is "lol that's simply not true." I'm just trying to flesh out a more complete argument.
I edited the title to better lay out my question using the word decline.
same problem remains, decline in what number?
is your main point that gutting unions enabled companies to move manufacturing jobs abroad?
The problem is that moving manufacturing abroad guts unions, its hard to strike or have any meaningful counter to it for a union. If they are threatening to lay everyone off and move abroad what could a union do to stop it? Only really a mass general strike which is near impossible in the US due to trade based unions.
Mass strikes are also illegal, so a half assed one would be counterproductive.
I think this is the right question to ask. Productivity per worker went through the roof in the same time period. A factory that used to have 100 workers might be down to 10 employees today and still be more productive. Half those guys are nepotism hires, and IAMAW tells you to kick rocks because your shop is too small for them to bother organizing. There goes your union, wages, and 90 jobs.
In addition to what others have said, american manufacturing has always been a bit of a lie. Way early on it was subsidized to break reliance on British manufacturing not that Yankee ingenuity crap. After world War 2 we were basically the only country that wasn't decimated so there wasn't a whole hell of a lot of competition for a period. A lot of things happened concurrently I guess is what I'm trying to say
