Henry Payne for December 10, 2012

That’s a bit simplistic and probably inaccurate. Unions in many ways have priced themselves out of the market, especially for production business’s. Clinton opened the WTO to China and ramrodded NAFTA and American labor has obviously suffered declines due to out sourcing ever since. Unfortunately we live in a global economy and America no longer has the infrastructure to manufacture as we used to. Add to that America’s desire for cheaper products. You think they are willing to pay substantially higher prices for consumer goods made inside the U.S. ? Unlikely. The unions growing the fastest are the public sector, the private sector base is shrinking. Public sector unions are facing a difficult future with so many municipalities that cannot afford the benefit and retirement funding…

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf

Unless you first consider Neoconman’s remarks to be anything but pure sarcasm, then you should probably not take him seriously.

Besides, that is a remarkable answer from you if you take him seriously, as you sound as if such times were not actually the heaven that some ultra conservatives think it was, which it certainly was not.

Heck, you could even add child labor, and a life expectancy of about half of today’s and you might have such times in your grasp!!

Right to work for low wages, no insurance, no pension, no safety. Right!

Okay folks, lets get real. The rules and regulations in force for labor are so onerous and detailed that the extreme case presented above is ridiculous. The LAWS on the books that regulate minimum wage, workman’s comp, safety conditions both environmental and mechanical are well established and have no relationship to a union influence. I worked in corporate accounting for years and believe me, the agencies that control those issues are powerful and maintain one of the highest minimum standards for health and safety of any country in the world.The unions have effectively priced themselves out of a market in the world economy we exist in today. Recently at the Port of Los Angeles, union CLERKS struck over their wage package of $165,000 a year, and guarantees that their jobs could never be eliminated or converted to a non union position. The new package would put them at $195,000 per year, all wages and benefits included. Do you wonder why shipping companies promote and pay for expansion of right to work states with ocean ports on the east coast? They are constantly expanding and upgrading the capacity of the Panama Canal for just that purpose. It’s pure competition in a world trade environment

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/04/business/la-fi-ports-strike-20121205

Will wages and conditions become so bad again that even illegal aliens won’t take the jobs.?

One of the things I’ve noted about republicans is they tend to think and speak as if everyone can be a multimillion dollar CEO.

Print up your 1099 forms or just take cash under the table.Nine dollars an hour is going to look good.

Unions can be good or bad for the workers. For example we used to have a Tappen plant here but the union would strike at the drop of a hat. The supervisors told the workers that the company wasn’t going to put up with much longer but the president of the local union said that “they have too much invested here to leave”. He kept saying that right up to the time the railroad cars came and started loading the equipment up to move to another location.

I am amazed that the GOP can make the middle class believe that organized labor and worker’s rights are bad. The Kool-Aid is very strong in them – vote against their own self interest… listen to the sound of my voice…