[Moosefart]

The time when they protected workers from uncaring bosses is gone. Now they cost people jobs by inflating the wage scale past equitability and being against improvement in the working conditions.

Give me a break, human nature is the same now as it was way back when. If someone can get cheaper labor and make more money they will do it any way they are allowed to. That's why labor laws were passed, to force business to treat workers like humans.

Your statement about unions being against improvement in the working conditions is so bogus I wont even comment on it.

[discostu]

Excuse me but maybe you should actually READ the article. The longshoremen locked out RIGHT NOW started all this fighting against improvements in the tracking system.

Human nature might be the same, but reality isn't. Regardless of the job you do and where you do it, there's always some other company you could go work for. It's that ability to take your skills elsewhere which has evened the field between employer and employee.

[MrB]

It's been a long time since I've seen such outright ignorance of free market economics.

In a free market:
If the worker is not receiving adequate compensation for his talent, skill, and labor (his product), he can sell it to (work for) someone else.
Likewise, if the product (labor) is not worth what the provider of the labor is providing, the employer should be able to pay market value for the product provided, or hire someone worth the salary demanded.

In the Goonion world:
The economy suffers greatly because we consumers are forced to pay for the inherent inefficiencies of unwarranted high salaries. Workers will continue to do inefficient things, employers cannot hire more efficient workers, and we all pay for it.