This seams rather petty considering that the US has lost a sense of it's identity on what made this country great in the first place. We send off jobs over seas and buy the very things that we lost in the first place. Marx toys was at one time one of the biggest toy makers in the world but cheap production from over seas killed the company and in turn killed toy makers in this country. Now the Chinese are costing so much that soon the production will go to some other 3rd world market and prop those peoples standard of living and we will welcome the low cost toys again but wonder why we can't build a road or overpass that lasts longer than 10 years. The infrastructure of this country falls apart but we can always get cheap toys. Blame the unions for that all you want but human nature always sticks its nose in the mix. People will always want better and are looking for ways to do less to get it. If by trying to level the playing field on the open market it costs more for some goods than so be it. We as a country need to find our sense of self again and get back that can do spirit. The worker should be paid more for his efforts as they are the coal that feeds the fire. Pride in self and ones work is never a bad thing and should be compensated.
Jeff (Geppetto) IBEW #640
While I agree with everything you said, the problem I have with unions (I've been in three) is not that people are paid a fair wage, it's that they force companies to hire 5 times as many employees as necessary, you can't get rid of crappy (incompetent or lazy employees) without years and years of documentation (and even then it's virtually impossible), and eventually all that dead weight eats into the companies profits and drives them out of business. Unions had their place 100 years ago, but there is no need for them today with all the laws protecting employees rights and safety. Now their just shills for the Socialist/Communist party ruining this country - they care more about collecting those dues (which is why they LOVE all those extra employees), then they do the employees themselves. And they force people to work at infinitely slower rates than necessary.
I've seen first hand Union Reps telling people that were getting their work done TOO FAST (like in a couple hours) to stop doing that, as that job is supposed to take 5 days, which it doesn't - but that's the pace they "decided" it takes. A friend of mine worked in building construction, and when he was relatively new and walking past a stack of 2x4s, a guy on a scaffolding called down and asked if he could hand up some boards. When he went to do so, the Union Rep yelled at him that that wasn't his job, and then pointed to a guy standing idly nearby, and said - that's his job. Pretty stupid, but that's unions.
The highways and bridges would get built a lot faster and better if these companies were paid by the job - and not by the hour. Pay closer attention to when they start road construction- they tear up the roads in March and April usually - disappear for months with little or no activity in those coned areas - and then come back in October and November to "rush" the job - all the while they're getting paid to do NOTHING. The 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis years ago, causing several deaths and would have been a MAJOR problem for years and years - was rebuilt in 6 months - because instead of paying them by the hour, they paid the company that could get the job done right and faster a multi-million dollar bonus - which turned out infinitely cheaper than it would have been if they had paid them by the hour and let the unions control the speed.
There's a Volkswagen manufacturer in Chattanooga TN (Volkswagen being a German company - loves those Unions) where the EMPLOYEES have steadfastly REFUSED to let the Union in, despite corporates attempts to do so, because the workers make a good wage, and they know what would happen if the union came in. F$&k unions - they need to be abolished in both the private and public sector (they never should have even been allowed in the public sector). The people who support unions are usually the laziest and most worthless employees in those unions because they know they can't lose their job and their overpaid to sit around and do nothing.
Everything else you said I agree with. We've definitely lost our way in this country.
