I wouldn't just blame the unions there. In the places that I've seen this dynamic, it's paired with exploitative management.
Without the unions, the managers would be running people ragged in the name of profit. So the natural counter-reaction is FU, I'll do as little as possible for the dough. Totally pathological, but in high school I had a couple of shitty minimum wage jobs that put me in that mindset.
For those interested in the dynamic, I strongly recommend the "This American Life" episode NUMMI:
It describes one of GM's worst plants switching over to a Toyota joint venture. Same people, but it went from this kind of bullshit (and worse!) to a place that everybody loved and worked hard at.
Without the unions, the managers would be running people ragged in the name of profit. So the natural counter-reaction is FU, I'll do as little as possible for the dough. Totally pathological, but in high school I had a couple of shitty minimum wage jobs that put me in that mindset.
For those interested in the dynamic, I strongly recommend the "This American Life" episode NUMMI:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/n...
It describes one of GM's worst plants switching over to a Toyota joint venture. Same people, but it went from this kind of bullshit (and worse!) to a place that everybody loved and worked hard at.