It was early in the morning back in the 70s when the unions played their own very large part in the flight of American industry to other countries.
I know, because I was a member of the IEW and then the Steelworkers of America.
Unions were the dynamic for the ending of American industry, pure and simple.
We can barely even manufacture an auto anymore.
And those labor unions are mostly all international organizations with straight out Socialist agendas.
>Every sector of working households have suffered because of free trade.
They also benefit from free market goods made without the distortion of politically dominant unions skewing the worth of service.
And all of this is said by one who is not a “free trade” advocate at all. - I just see very clearly what has happened over the past 35 years in these industries.
[It was early in the morning back in the 70s when the unions played their own very large part in the flight of American industry to other countries.]
The unions are also part of the problem with the corrupted America in their need for greed, you can drive the streets of Detroit and see the end of the unlimited greed they had part in by driving the industries out.
But they think of themselves as victims and refuse the truth. So be it. They sowed the wind and have reaped the whirlwind and will not own up to their part in the destruction of America.
No union fan am I but it frosts me when the free trade and worker conundrum is phrased as 'and when American workers were forced to compete with foreign workers' --- which is bs. We were never asked to compete and we cannot compete with workers making literally pennies on what American workers earn. If I took the salary my counterpart in India makes, I couldn't pay taxes, buy goods in this country, put a roof over my head or eat. I can do the job better than he can too.
My GF was (years ago) the vp of the AFL-CIO - I remember the worker horror stories that he told - and back in the day, he was right. He organized mostly police and firefighters. Same guys who defended our country in WW2.
Dad was a union guy too and functioned on the union grievance board. He worked for an energy company and used to defend guys who were drunk on the job so they could keep their job. Not good but on the other hand, these guys made just enough money to buy a house in the 'burbs, buy an American car when they needed it and send the kids to college. Also to retire with a pretty nice pension - ok, it was a pretty nice pension up until a few years ago and now Dad is living pretty frugally due to the stagnant pension and rising prices of goods and services.
I don't know where I am going with this but it strikes me that there needs to be some sort of balance in this country. Competition between American workers for jobs - now that would be a level playing field. Maybe less greed on the exec board - there is something wrong when a CEO makes over 400 times what his workers make (and that is new within the past 10 years) and even if he is lousy at what he does, he leaves with the proverbial golden parachute and gets the same exact job with another company... name me one CEO who screwed a company with mismanagement and who is now collecting unemployment. I'd like those guys to 'play on a level playing field' with their employees.
I don't think companies buying up companies helps either... lots of people are displaced and local competition is broken. My energy bills haven't decreased since the local energy companies were gobbled up by the big national companies and when I need to call them, mostly I get overseas people answering the phone. I'd so much rather my American dollars helped support an American payroll.
Thanks for listening to my rant/ruminations. (I can go on if you want) :-)