[Viva Le Dissention]

What's that? You mean have Big Government step in and interfere with the free market exchange?

Some small government advocates you people are.

[McGavin999]

So what's free trade about having a bunch of greedy union thugs crippling the economy and putting thousands of innocent people out of work? What's free market about the ripple effect of people who are already higher paid than most corporate executives?

If we want to talk free trade, then the owners could go out and HIRE people who would be willing to work for $80,000 a year plus full medical coverage instead of being forced to wait for the nod from people who are afraid of technology.

[discostu]

Unions break the whole concept of free market labor. In a free market labor situation the employer and each employee as an individual negotiate the compensation. Once there's a union in place all the negotiating is done en mas via the collective bargaining agreement (which often is the standard enforced on all employers in that field), part of which forbid the employer from hiring non-union labor. At that point the union has effectively captured the market and is a defacto monopoly source of labor for anyone in that field and can do things like dictate prices for labor far in excess to the fair market value, or just generaly rule the industry. Just look at some of the "negotiating points" in the MLB non-strike, their labor union is telling the frnachise owners how to run their business, all the way from the perentage of labor costs to the advertising budget. It's crazy how deep in the unions stick their fingers, in many industries the union has more control than the board, there are no limits as to what can be in a CBA, and the price of violating it is to lose your entire work force.

[snopercod]

Free market?

Are you implying that I could go...say...Long Beach and be hired to drive a fork lift for...well, hell...I'd do it for $100,000 per year?

I have seen these union thugs at work, and my car would be bashed and battered as I drove through their picket lines in an attempt to get to work. I would probably be shot.

Usually, the crooked cops stand by and watch, too.

I am not making this up. I have personally observed it in Laughlin, NV, in 1980 when Southern California Edison was on strike. I saw the guns, I saw the headlights being broken with 2x4s, and I saw the Sheriff's Deputies standing around and watching, but doing nothing.

Is this your idea of a free market, newbie?

[Vigilanteman]

You mean have Big Government step in and interfere with the free market exchange?

What planet are you from? If the free market was really operating here, these longshorejerks would be earning about $35K per year . . . or the port operators would start hiring replacement workers.

[RobbyS]

Blame Bob Taft, that archliberal!