I'd have to agree. And I say that as no big fan of unions...
Even the Union contracts were by in large the result of Wall street being short sighted. When the profits were rolling in, managment took the short term approach and bought labor peace at all costs. For example, there was no reason why a steel worker in 1975 was making in 1975 dollars, $15($60 hr equivlent today) hr along with 6 weeks of vacation a year, a 1 hr paid lunch and other goodies. Now I do believ in having a well trained, well paid workforce is essential for a stable society, but the excess in the 70s were a bit much. That said, we are at the other end of the spectrum today, and I fear that as more and more Americans become economically stressed, the road to a European style Socialist state will get shorter and shorter.
. Now again, even with these bloated contracts, the steel firms still could have re invested profits and adopted newer technologies, and by the 70s, attrition started to take hold in the steel industry and could have planned a future with a leaner labor model, but sadly, managment was clueless.