[JNB]

Having been in situations where the pendulum has swung far too much to the empolyer side, I see that there is a need for unions, but at least the AFL-CIO just does not care about workers in the trenches, all they care about is pushing whatever fashionable program upper middle class againg hippies want to push, even if it is against the intrests of the workers inm the trenches. I know many Freepers bitterly disagree with the need for unions, but they exist(at least on paper) to support the workers and stand up for workers), but in reality as another poster said, today they are a organisation of elites who have views supporting abortion, opposing gun rights, supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants(a postion that ironically further rots the postion of private sector workers and any attempt to unionise there), but yet lacked the will to take so called pro worker Democrats to task when the the approvale for Chinas addmitence for the WTO was up in congress in the summer of 2000.

[AZFolks]

I really have empathy for the workers who have been laid off. However, this story has two sides. The AFL-CIO has made American labor (and subsequently American made products) very expensive. I read an article in USA Today comparing American auto salaries with foreign auto salaries. The Americans averaged $50 per hour. This is just too much for unskilled labor. Our only hope is to move American workers into high tech jobs but there are not enough Americans taking advantage of the opportunity. My son got a masters in math and confided in me that he was the only candidate in his group who had English as his first language.