[Iscool]

Pratt has to sever all ties with this union and with a state that believes it has the right to issue orders of this nature, and if that means losing some good workers, that may be the price of preserving their private property rights.

Good, glad to see the State upheld a contract signed by BOTH SIDES...

Of course these workers can't compete with labor in Indonesia and China...Can you, OR WILL YOU live on less than a dollar per hour wages in the U.S.???

[Citizen Tom Paine]

The US labor can compete with labor in another irrespective of the hourly wages. The balancing factor is productivity. If each US employee makes 10 times as much product he can be paid 10 times as much and we still can compete.

The rub is that management must spend money,i.e., automate, to increase productivity. One school function also is to turn out trained motivated employees who can use the automated procedures.

[William Tell]

Iscool said: "Can you, OR WILL YOU live on less than a dollar per hour wages in the U.S.??? "

You're asking the wrong question. The question is, "MUST you live on less than a dollar per hour wages?" With a billion Chinese and a billion Indians willing to work for much less than American union workers, just what choice do you think they will have?

Any highly paid worker in the U.S., which includes almost everyone, is making a very bad economic error if their first priority is anything other than increasing productivity. The bashing of "big business" is not helpful.