[oceanview]

that is the important point from this article. its the concentration of union power in government and municipal and public education workers, because they take money from those of us in the private sector to fund their compensation packages. and as private sector unions decline, so are wages and benefits for private sector workers, whether they are unionized or not. we are going to reach a point in this country where most of the traditional middle class has a government job of some kind - even health care workers are quasi government employees because government pays so much of the health care bills - leaving private sector workers hanging onto the wage scale by their fingertips, while being taxed to fund a base of workers in government who are unionized.

[2banana]

You are right on - at one time a government job was a low paying job with decent benefits and security. Now they have gold plated benefits, magnificent pensions and pay scales above the private sector. That is OK, they can always raise taxes to pay for it.

In Philly, near where I live, the mass transit agency (SPETA) is bankrupt yet the SEPTA union workers threatened to go on strike if they had to pay one dollar towards their health insurance...they live in a fantasy world.