Replies

"Bullcrap. Like corporations, unions are merely artificial entities representing the financial interests of their membership. Overall, they exist in (more or less) balanced opposition to each other."

Yep, that's why the UAW labor companies productivity is extremely underporforming it's competition. That is why it takes a unionized automotive plant from 7.5 hours to 8.5 hours to build one vehicle, while the non-unionized transplants take about 4.5 hours on average. Productivity is a major measurement that the UAW wants pulled from their performance criteria.

The UAW is costing the big 3 huge and will continue to do so until they allow flexibility of job classifications. I am all for treating employees fairly and safely, however that street needs to go both ways!

Come on, you're using productivity in an unfair comparision. Union-staffed factories in the U.S. are mostly running on older lines, not the new ones built to accommodate hi-tech assembly procedure. Higher productivity isn't necessarily as physically possible in those plants. And don't forget that internationally, Korea and Japan have damn strong unions and generally have incredible assembly times in comparison to the U.S.
contracts is not wrong; that they have hurt the country's manufacturing base and limited freedom of contract is.

I'm not out to defend the UAW or fat-cat union contracts. I just don't think it's wrong for people to work together--if owners can legally collude in the marketplace with government assistance, and they do (IATA being a prime example), why workers shouldn't have the same ability to do so is unfathomable. Are the people who here stand against unions actually suggesting we ban them, and the right of free association? How? I'm not saying workers can't fire them at will, or I am a member! Just that unions can serve a purpose and aren't any more inherently evil than other associative groups.