Does anyone think "quality" when they see "Proudly Made by Workers of the (Name the Union)" on a product?
I don't. Every time I notice the little UAW sticker on my Mustang I think that Ford somehow managed to build a pretty good car despite its labor force.
I don't know if that's inherent to unions or just to American unions. Unionized German workers seem to turn out pretty good cars, so maybe it's the latter.
The building trades often have good reputations. I worked with a lot of "management" folk at Bechtel who swear by union labor (but can't get it in a lot of places they go). I think part of this is that for most of the building trades the education happens through the union. That sets them apart from a lot of unions--like the public sector ones, for example. So while all unions' first order of business is job protection--not work quality--the building trades often have work quality as essentially a prerequisite.
That's not to say there aren't all sort of typical people-run problems within the building trades, too, but quality generally isn't one of them.
As noted above, it's about balance, which unions provide. Unions shouldn't have all the power, nor should the owners. Frankly, the owners do take the bigger economic risk, so they should be entitled to additional profit from that risk. However, unfettered, the workers generally don't get a fair shake. Not everything needs to be union, either. Union labor policies benefit non-union workers, too, by applying pressure to comp/benefits decisions that impact the market.
Ok, next politics point: all you (CWS, I'm looking at you!) who think the parties shouldn't be ramming candidates down our throats should love AOC and her ilk, right? She was very much an anti-party candidate. :-) And that QANON woman from Georgia who will almost certainly be in the next Congress? [I know I'm twisting the knife here, but anti-establishment isn't always better.]
Alright, back to cars...(sorry for being *that* guy).
We had a Mercedes (bought when it was a couple of years old) that we loved, but mechanically it didn't perform all that well, and oh was it expensive to fix. Our Hondas have all been fantastic in that respect (if we would stop running them into immobile objects in parking situations, that would keep our expenses even lower).
Badge is probably like most engineers I know, who understand that all machines require care and feeding, and can be kept running with just a little of that. Growing up with engineers, I learned that we can fix most things, and fixing them is almost always cheaper than replacing. And YouTube is amazing for what it will show you how to do. I've saved thousands of dollars on dishwashers, dryers, headphones, my cars, and this week on a cat's scratching post, by taking a little time and a little YouTube. And it's one less thing in the landfill.
