"Jim -" wrote in message
news:9Z3bb.533979$uu5.89222@sccrnsc04...

"Mark Browne" wrote in message
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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



Why does an average quality family car like a Chevy Impala cost close to
$20k today?

Because the price has risen with inflation.
Have you checked out the price of a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk
lately?
Next question.

Mark Browne
P.S. I suspect that Jim secretly longs for the good old days of slave
labor - think how cheap his car would be then!