Replies

I love the idea of unions! But, unions usually shoot themselves in the foot by overdoing things. Things not related to wages and benefits as much as by the stupid rules they try to put in. I was actually a scab once and the guys at the plant were telling me that certain people could not switch more than 440 volts without being a something or another second class. Which means some people could not turn on a multiple set of lights and an engine at the same time.

That being said, for most industries there is not much regulation. There are safety rules. There are certain engineering standards. I have seen some pretty stupid regulations but most of the time most businesses don’t encounter them.

parsy, who thinks greed and a poor national policy are to blame

Like you, I have personally seen some jobs delayed and others much more costly than necessary because of crews being idled because they had to wait three or four hours for a union electrician to flip a switch to turn off a machine. He would then leave and the machine would need turning back on fifteen minutes later only to have to wait another few hours for the same guy to return and flip the switch again. I have seen much worse abuse than that, also.

What do you think of the "job banks?" In case you don't know, that is where a union member goes when he is no longer needed on a particular job. The company still pays him 85% - 95% of his pay while he does nothing. If he is offered another job he doesn't have to take it and can remain in the job bank, meaning idle, as long as he wants while still being paid.

Regulations? What about affirmative action, minority set asides, can't fire a person without going through a detailed, painstaking process of building a paper trail of violations and short comings, a 'hostile work environment", sexual harassment, and all the other nonsense HR requirements? What about having to evacuate and destroy minor fume emissions from printing inks, having to capture and evacuate minor ozone emissions?

There are many, many more and we haven't even gotten to corporate taxes.

parsy, who thinks greed and a poor national policy are to blame

When you make money or earn a bonus it is only fair; when someone else does it is greed.

There are abusers on all sides and yes even corporate officers will do things to benefit themselves over the good of everyone else. Investors, employees and even other executives can be victims of a few greedy individuals.

Communists, socialists, unions, “capitalists” as I mention above, politicians, government officials, and on and on all have a self interest that is detrimental to the other groups. They all go about their destruction in a different way and they are all fighting for the same slice of pie. Unfortunately we are all caught in the middle of these power battles.

Excess in all things leads to misery and even capitalism has its extremes. That said I still agree with Friedman that its the best of all the choices in terms of a model for society.