[LowOiL]

The American steel companies and their unions want to protect a few thousand jobs at the expense of millions of consumers by forcing consumers to pay higher prices for produces using steel than would otherwise prevail.

Little simplified..

Steel Fabrication is also done here in the states, locally one of the largest employers is NONE UNION. We lost our local sock manufacturing to overseas competitors the last couple of years and it was also non-union. It was the town's largest employer, but alas no longer so.

I am getting tired of everything being blamed on unions, this nation has very small populaces that actually work union.

Non-union people need jobs too.

[econjack]

We lost our local sock manufacturing to overseas competitors the last couple of years and it was also non-union.

Many textile companies have lost out to foreign competition, especially in the Northeast. Some of those firms have relocated to the South in an attempt to tap into lower-cost, non-union, labor. Still, even in the South they can't compete with China and Taiwan. So what do we do? Should be raise tariffs to protect a couple of thousand jobs, or make it free trade which would lower sock prices for millions of US consumers? Sorry, but if someone is thrown out of work by foreign competition, it's simply the market saying: "Invest in yourself and make your labor more valuable." That's really what unemployment compensation is for...to give them time to find another job, hopefully after investing in themselves.

[businessprofessor]

You make some good points. The steel industry has traditionally be heavily unionized. There are non union alternatives although I am not sure about the ratio between the unionized and non-unionized steel industry. It is sad that the non unionized part of the industry cannot compete.

Beyond unions, the villains are high taxes, unwieldy regulations, and litigation madness. In the future, high energy prices have the potential to make production in the US non competitive. China has a crash program to construct coal fired and nuclear power plants while the dims impose ridiculous renewable energy mandates and preach conservation.