[Willie Green]

It is never just lower wage rates. Most of the 130,000 jobs in Pennsylvania were union jobes. They are gone but my bet is that very few union officials missed a pay check, any expense account reimbursement, or lost any benefits.

The truth is that only 16~17% of Pennsylvania's wage and salary workers are represented by organized labor. (source) That's roughly the national average for workers 25 years of age and older.
And on a nationwide basis, only 14~15% of manufacturing workers are represented by unions.
The real bastion of organized labor has become government employees (including teachers unions) at levels exceeding 40% (source).

I've posted links to the source of my information, even though I'm well aware that facts don't mean squat to you. But thanks for providing me the opportunity to once again prove how maliciously ignorant and deceitful you blue collar bashers truely are.

[liberalnot]

you're telling me that general motors is not unionized?

[Ciexyz]

All work has dignity. No one should be bashing blue collar laborers on this board.

I know a gentleman who is approx. age 50 who is a skilled machinist in the Pittsburgh area. His company just cut a bunch of jobs and sent the work to China. This family man is eligible for retraining funds. I wish him well. But I personally wouldn't want to be retraining when I had a skill that was formerly valued.

I don't want anyone to view my comments as left of center or liberal Democrat comments. My comments concern the human suffering that workers in my area are suffering. And by the way, when workers suffer, management personnel also suffer, lose jobs, etc. No one should say in a cavalier to an unemployed person, Well just go retrain. It's not that easy, folks. These people will try their best of course, but it's never easy to start over. And remember, age discrimination is a vicious component of our workplaces.