snip
The unions leach off the capitalists. Why should they change?

BTW: What is union membership down to, about 13% of the total US
workforce? Take
away the teachers union and the government workers and you are left with
unions
representing a small percentage of the total US workforce. The trend for
union
membership has been on a downward slide as most workers realize they can
earn better
pay and better benefits without having to pay thousands each year to union
fatcats.

I was just chatting with a fellow today - he said that the union organizers
were snooping around the place he works (a printed circuit board house) and
the management suddenly felt the need to raise his pay 3 bucks an hour.
Would they have done this without the union?

Perhaps the union is just a tool in the hand of the worker. They pull it out
and club companies that loose touch with reality. Like any tool, it *can* be
miss-used. We all know that there are bunches of people that want to get rid
of certain tools just because they can be mis-used. Examples include
firearms, jet skis, private aircraft, encryption software, file sharing
software. Unions are something like that.

I used to live Waterloo Iowa. The only big employers are IBP and John Deere.
Deere has done some pretty scummy things to the town over the years. I can
tell you that the union is about the only force keeping John Deere in line.
There *are* still situations in the USA were the union is useful.

Please note that compensation and mission are separate issues. Just like
government leadership jobs, I would like to see union leadership get the
median wage of the workers. That might address the "fatcat" issue. Or not.
It would still go a long ways towards addressing issues of fairness.

Mark Browne