[BobL]

Perhaps if they didn’t have union rules and union contracts, they would have automated.

You won’t get far defending unions on this site.

[muawiyah]

I can actually get quite a long way on this site demanding the right to carry my concealed weapon safely on my person into any business that wants to sell me something or buy something from me ~ like my labor.

And with that you don't need a union.

A requirement that everybody, not just hollywood stars and athletes, be required to sign contracts with anyone else before accepting payment for labor would eliminate all those needs.

Unions in this country started up as an outgrowth of the old guild system ~ which protected skilled labor markets, and the fact your ordinary person really couldn't afford a lawyer, nor even to go to court in a civil suit.

Cooperative action is an ancient custom dating back to the times we had to hunt mastadons or giraffes, or defend ourselves from cavebears and lions ~ kind of predates government in fact. Just because you have government now is no excuse for prohibiting people from cooperating in activities ~ first amendment stuff.

Is there some reason the first amendment is now out of favor on FR? I don't think so ~

[muawiyah]

The big bread factories ~ I've been in some of them ~ were designed around concepts of mass production in a continuous flow that are now outdated.

Horizontal and vertical reintegration of all the processes with application of automation to the preparation of the basic ingredients has allowed the bread industry to break away from the large bread factory model.

Mechanization, automation, computerization, robotics and improved work methods are creating higher and higher productivity every day. Hostess was not prohibited from introducing new technology.