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MorgMcA said 05/18, 10:50 PM
Ok, first off i have nothing against a man earning an honest and reasonable wage. However, these Unions as of late are becoming detrimental to our economy's international well-being.

America currently leads the world in techonogical innovation, yet we fall behind countries like Germany and Japan in using that innovation to revamp our industries. Germany and Japan have used technology to eliminate many thousands of menial, labor-intensive, low production yield jobs, most particullary in the manufacturing industries. Meanwhile every time GM or Ford attempts to adapt, or automate more positions the Autoworkers Union goes on strike. This is just one ex. Elevator Companies are unable to use the latest improvements not because of capital restrictions or safety concerns, but because the Unions will strike. Why because jobs could be lost due to the new efficiency of technological improvement.

This forces our blue collar workers to use older, less efficient equiment and puts them effectively on the same plane as workers in China and India (or at least Mexico) where labor is 10x cheaper. No wonder outsourcing is such a problem, Thanks for shooting us and yourselves in the foot AFLCIO

MorgMcA said 05/22, 09:41 PM
Alright, thanks for your candor

These jobs are not going to stay the same, either they will be automated to improve effiency or they will be shipped overseas if we try to keep these jobs from changing. If we allow large scale automation, we can also allow for a large retraining program within manufacturing industries to turn a manual laborer into a mechanic, or manager of these machines. Out here in Seattle we have Boeing, a gianormous industry, an industry that practically has every profession working for it. these auto industries are also very large and there are other jobs (most would even be higher paying) within these industries that workers could be retrained to do. but these jobs cannot stay the same

Companies want to pay people a good wage, it keeps them competitive with other companies in the labor pool. a higher wage generally attracts better talent. granted there were many instances where people were taken advantage of by their employers in the past, a past also dominated by monopolies

Also out here in Seattle, there is no Microsoft Union and any Boeing union that exists isn't very strong. Yet these are the main employers here, because they pay very well

MorgMcA said 05/23, 02:27 PM
I don't claim to know anything that the unions don't, all i know is that they hate free trade because it allows companies to ship jobs overseas, where they can pay people less, and are staunchly against the automation of the labor process for the same reason. The reason is thus, people will lose jobs. It is very short-sighted. If you can tell me what they know, that turns this short-sightedness into a nickel of sense, please tell me

Labor Unions are in effect a monopoly of labor birthed to combat the monopolies of the late 19th century. Where a monopoly of production exists, one can afford to pay people less, because your competitors don't exist and cannot invite your talented labor to leave you and work for them

i mentioned Boeing and Microsoft not only because they pay very well (and personal knowledge of) but also because they are as close to a monopoly gets in this country, yet they pay their employees an attractive wage to get the best talent, everyone here wants to work for either company

I think Ford or GM would gladly pay to retrain these people, if the union would allow them the flexibility to do so, gov incentives would also help, if unions weren't a voting bloc