I think I understood the cleaning toilet comment. Not necessarily cleaning a toilet, but willing to do the job you are assigned to whether you like it or not. One of the first few days of my summer job at the truck plant was working with the assistant foreman in the steel shop. We were taking down the high steel racks. I was to climb up and hang onto the piece of pipe while he cut it off with the torch. Kind of like climbing to the top of a tree while its being cut down. I don’t like heights and especially don’t like what I’m standing on up high being cut out under me, but hey it was $1.65 an hour plus overtime and a turkey for Christmas. I did as told but learned a lot there. I also worked assembly, foundry, wood shop, tire molding, etc. I was the kid that filled in everywhere.
I was a janitor in a college work program, luckily I had a girls dorm, they would clean up for me before I got there, the boys dorms were full of hellish stories. One student informed me a light bulb was out, I asked my supervisor where I could get a bulb, sorry he says we have to notify the electricians. Makes sense on one level I suppose…
As far as cleaning goes, our cleaning crew is responsible for the restrooms, so I’m not going to clean the toilet. That would be encroaching on somebody else’s job
However, the cleaning crew is NOT responsible for cleaning up my work bay, so I pick up after myself and mop the floor, as needed
I already do that. Without going into many details, I’m extremely resourceful at getting my job done, whether that involves thinking of a new way to do things, finding information in obscure locations, etc., I’m your man. In fact, I’m able to locate resources that others can’t, sometimes because I’m good at finding stuff, other times because other guys are unwilling to try to do it
I do many things that nobody has asked me to do, such as picking up trash that my colleagues have dropped. I don’t necessarily like working in filthy conditions. If I’m walking by and see a dirty rag on the ground, I’ll pick it up and put it where it belongs, in the red container for dirty rags. If I see old soda cans or plastic bottles in the trash, I’ll put them where they belong, in the container for empty cans/bottles which eventually gets turned in for cash at the local recycler. I’ll also remove cardboard boxes from the regular trash cans and put them in the blue container, where they belong. I actually show a lot of initiative.
I don’t work in “a company” as a matter of fact, but I am a mechanic
I know what kind of work ethic I have, and you’re free to think what you will about me. And I’m free to form my own opinions about you.
But perhaps everything I’ve said about myself is an outright lie. Maybe I’m a slob who doesn’t pick up after myself. Maybe I sit on my behind until my boss tells me to work. And then, maybe I’ll just go hide somewhere. 
That’s interesting, considering how many Honda and Toyota factories are operated inside the US. They do, however, tend to be non-union shops.
The Honda and Toyota plants are sizable, from what I understand
Are you saying they’re non-union plants?
If so, how did that come to pass?
The only scenario I can think of . . . “We (Toyota and Honda) are interested in building an auto plant in your state, but ONLY if you can guarantee there will NEVER be any discussion of a unionized work force.”
Forgive me for going off track a little but you reminded me of our visit to Detroit. It must have been around 1976 or so, maybe later, but whenever they had their big garbage workers strike, so there was no garbage pick up in the city. We did all of the museums and so on and ended up one afternoon at the city park. There was trash blowing everywhere. The grounds were literally covered with blowing papers while the trash cans sat empty. Also the park was filled with people who just ignored the trash all over. It was someone else’s job. I don’t know, but I always maintained that that would not happen in Minnesota. People would have pitched in and picked up all the garbage or sacked it up and not allow a public park to be filled with trash. It was really a cultural eye opener for me and might have been the beginning of the great downfall of Detroit.
I hear what you’re saying, but who is going to bring the vast volumes of trash to the dump, or wherever it’s supposed to go?
Who is going to operate the trash trucks?
You have to find somebody qualified to actually operate those things.
Driving the truck is one thing . . . I could legally do that, for example
But I don’t know how to operate the hydraulics. At my shop, we don’t work on trash pickup vehicles. On the flip side, I can work on other vehicles that would leave those guys scratching their heads
I suppose you could always hire scabs. I’ve sometimes wondered what happens to those guys after a strike is over. Lots of people now know they crossed picket lines, are there strained family relationships, do they somehow NOT get hired at future jobs, because it’s known what they did?
I’m not saying drive it to the dump, I’m just saying pick up the papers and put them in the empty trash barrels provided. Or put them in garbage bags and stack them by the trash barrels. I’m not sure if we had trash bags then or not. But don’t just sit and hang around the park but pick up some of the trash. Now that I think about it, it was probably a conscious effort to support the striking garbage haulers. See how filthy this place gets if we don’t cave in to the haulers union? I think in grade school government studies it was called public responsibility.
Sounds like the people were using sound judgement 
yeah, if you take that approach, you’re sending the message “We don’t care about your union. We want you to work under abysmal conditions, and you’re going to like it”
I believe the community also has a public responsibility to support the garbage workers. They’re people, part of the community. They have families to support
I don’t recall implying what I thought about your work ethic. I don’t even have an opinion on your work ethic, since I’ve never seen you work… So I’m not sure why you seem to think you’ve got to defend it.
I don’t reckon, I’ve got a beef with you, brother. If you’ve got one with me…I guess I’m partial to ribeyes.
Toyota and Nissan have factories in Mississippi, Volkswagen is in Tennessee and Hyundai is in Alabama. those are RIGHT TO WORK states and while the UAW has worked to get into those plants they have failed.
I know what “Right to Work” is all about . . .
And I think it best to not get any further into this
It’s safe to assume most of the regulars know my viewpoint on this
And on the flip side, I believe I have a pretty good idea what the viewpoint is of many of the other regulars
Honda has a plant in Ga.
Today the US is becoming trendishly tribal to a fault. So many things are no longer merely preferred they have become lines in the sand and a like minded mob seems to quickly coalesce to face down any and all detractors. And like so many issues currently troubling US this problem seemed to have begun in the late 70s following the gas crisis, Japan’s rush to take the automobile market from Detroit and the Iatollah’s overthrow of oil rich Iran. Does anyone else recall 18% interest on new car loans and 13% on mortgages? Or the jump in gasoline prices from 45c to $1+?
From 1968 until 1980 the EPA forced automakers to clean up emissions and their success was phenomenal but somehow in the cleanup everything for the average family on Main St went $outh. Where did WE/THEY/WHOEVER go wrong?
Looks good.
You forgot the 14% unemployment… 
Those were tough years.
The issues were much, much bigger than only the automotive industry. Those three double-digit figures plummeted in ''81 when Reagan took office. That was also the very day that the Ayatollah released the hostages in Iran. I believe foreign relations under Carter were extremely weak and it cost us dearly. Carter was perhaps the most honest, Godfearing, and decent man to ever set foot in the whitehouse, and his academic success at Annapolis shows that he was very intelligent, but I’m not sure he was the right man for the job of President. But foreign relations is so complicated that I’m not sure anybody ever really figured out exactly what happened. Even those that were knee-deep in it.
Are there currently any unionized (UAW) Japanese, Korean, or German auto plants in the US?
Yes. I recall as a young boy my much older, recently married cousin coming over to borrow some money from my dad. “Uncle, we found a nice house, and the broker can lock us in at 12% on the mortgage if we sign papers tomorrow but we’re about $1000 short on cash. Can you help us?”
Yes, I remember gas going up to $1.27 and Dad having to get up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning for the privilege of buying it.
I remember stations in some areas having to hire detail cops to manage (better word?) their pumps. People were breaking into fistfights and in some cases using baseball bats and tire irons to protect their place in line. It really got bad in some areas. Fortunately, I was stationed in North Dakota at the time and none of the violence happened.