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I am torn with Unions because they always go too far. With no Unions, you get WalMart, one step above slavery. With Unions, they always go too far until they rip the competitive bowels out of the company, like the major auto makers.
Too bad there is no middle ground.
That's the way of the world bily, there'll never be a perfect system. One guy works for his interest and another guy works for his that's opposite. It swings one way and then the other and we hope that in the meanwhile we get something out of it for ourselves.
But we'll never get much if we can't identify our interest or work for the other guy's at the expense of our own. It won't work right if everything piles up on one side.
Why? Because I don't like Unions? That I see nothing good in Unions? Union membership is going down!
I see absolutely no need for Unions
Because you say something as childish as "unions suck".
And because any reasonable person would agree that unions benefit many who belong to them. Guys like me who made double what non union people doing the same work make. Guys like me who retire at 55 with a union controlled pension paying as good as working 40 hours a week. Guys like me who put two girls through the University of Illinois and paid every nickel out of pocket, cash, and could do it because I had a union job.
Telling me that there's nothing good about unions simply flies in the face of reality.
Now when a business owner tells me "yeah, unions are good for you but bad for me", well sure, I can respect that. That's honest.
Sorry, he's right. Unions suck. They are akin to communism.
I guess you should consider that if you support unions........
Communism? This is the 1930s anti-union playbook.
However, IF they are akin to communism then communism ain't so bad.
You said the union guys doing the same work make double what non union makes. How is that bad? Isn't that good Capitalism, to get the most you can? Isn't that the name of the game?
I completely agree that in most companies today the rank and file gets screwed over by the executives. Every year the benfits shrink and most workers are lucky to get a pay raise that keeps up wth inflation. The executives get big bonuses for shutting down plants in America and opening them up in China or somewhere.
But with globalization the floodgates have been opened. If one company tries to protect the average worker, they will lose out to the competition that is taking advantage of their workers, and then eventually that company goes out of business.
I see the average worker in America just getting shafted for the foreseeable future, at least in manufacturing.
I completely agree that in most companies today the rank and file gets screwed over by the executives. Every year the benfits shrink and most workers are lucky to get a pay raise that keeps up wth inflation. The executives get big bonuses for shutting down plants in America and opening them up in China or somewhere.
But with globalization the floodgates have been opened. If one company tries to protect the average worker, they will lose out to the competition that is taking advantage of their workers, and then eventually that company goes out of business.
I see the average worker in America just getting shafted for the foreseeable future, at least in manufacturing.
I won't argue with that Bily, you're right. Look at the furniture business which left Michigam for North Carolina but has now mostly moved to China. No American, union or non union, can work as cheaply as a Chinese worker.
But I submit that's all the more reason to get good wages and benefits for those jobs that can't leave the country----construction, healthcare, janitors, mechanics, food workers and such.
Oh - I'm not suggesting firing them because they are looking into unions etc.
I am suggesting however that, if workers vote for a union - the company does not have to agree to a contract -
The whole legislation that Wal-Mart is opposing changes the playing field, and your above stipulation, because if Wal-Mart doesn't agree to the contract it has to submit to mandatory government arbitration which will impose the union contract.
Unions can no longer spend contributions from member dues. However, they will ask if you want to donate on behalf of the Unions choice. I declined. My dues do not go to any candidates, another myth busted.
Who pays for Wal-Mart Watch and the other anti-Wal-Mart groups? Unions.
So even if your dues don't go to any political candidates, they do go toward a political agenda.
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