02-06-2012, 03:49 PM
I have seen a lot of unnecessary union bashing going on lately and it really surprises me that in this day and age of unlimited information, people can make such blanket statements without researching their claims. It's not unions shutting down businesses, It's the greed of people who want to make a 500% profit versus a 100% profit.
If it wasn't for the union/labor movement, we would still be working 6 days per week at 12 hours per day. There would still be child labor in the factories and dangerous working conditions. It wasn't unions embezzling billions of dollars and it wasn't unions shutting down businesses. Many businesses ship production overseas because they can pay for one day what a worker makes in one hour. A big reason for the need for cheap labor is because retailers will only pay so much for a product forcing the jobs overseas. The cost savings is very rarely passed on to the consumer. As a result, quality goes down.
A case in point is when Snapper Lawnmower went to the Walmart Headquarters in Benton, Arkansas. The prices that Walmart would have paid to Snapper would have forced production overseas. Snapper refused to sell at Walmart because they felt that production overseas would have caused a drop in the quality in their product.
This country made the best products for years and lead the world in industrial infrastructure. Do the unions design the product or the assembly line? I remember when you bought a car and you could do most of the repairs yourself. The car was expected to last 20 years. Nowaday's cars are not expected to last more than 10 years.
If it wasn't for the union/labor movement, we would still be working 6 days per week at 12 hours per day. There would still be child labor in the factories and dangerous working conditions. It wasn't unions embezzling billions of dollars and it wasn't unions shutting down businesses. Many businesses ship production overseas because they can pay for one day what a worker makes in one hour. A big reason for the need for cheap labor is because retailers will only pay so much for a product forcing the jobs overseas. The cost savings is very rarely passed on to the consumer. As a result, quality goes down.
A case in point is when Snapper Lawnmower went to the Walmart Headquarters in Benton, Arkansas. The prices that Walmart would have paid to Snapper would have forced production overseas. Snapper refused to sell at Walmart because they felt that production overseas would have caused a drop in the quality in their product.
This country made the best products for years and lead the world in industrial infrastructure. Do the unions design the product or the assembly line? I remember when you bought a car and you could do most of the repairs yourself. The car was expected to last 20 years. Nowaday's cars are not expected to last more than 10 years.
Mike Kieran
Port Able Lines
" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be " - Yogi Berra.
Port Able Lines
" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be " - Yogi Berra.