“That is tragic for America because good union wages were critical to creating and are critical to sustaining the nation’s middle class.”

Yeah I heard a rumor about textile mills leaving the States and headed overseas. Any grounds to these rumors?

Unions don’t help the situation, but these jobs were going to disappear with or without them. As an economy matures, manufacturing will give way to distribution, marketing, finance and technology. The reason is quite simple.

In the chain of bringing a product to market from extracting the raw materials to selling it off the store shelf, the lowest net money made in that chain is in the manufacturing. Typically, a product that sells for $10 at retail cost about $1.25 to produce, leaving the manufacture a net profit of about $.50 per unit.

Just like the large number of US homeowners that rather pay someone $200 a month to mow their grass, they send this manufacturing overseas because the returns are not there to mess with the lower ends of the product chain.

Another example is Nike. Their cost to produce a shoe in Asia is less than $5 and that shoe retails in the US for $90. That is $85 that is made on that shoe from point of manufacturing to point of sale! All you have to do is follow the money.

Unions will continue to decline as their target market of employees will continue to loose jobs to developing markets. Unless they start to target other buisnesses in the product chain, their only hope is to move to those developing markets. They need to take a lesson from the Catholics which is kind of like a union. Seeing their flock declining in the developed parts of the world, they concentraited on the developing countries to expand their numbers.

Indeed, their level of discourse seems to be around that of leftist drones.

When ever a group in this country can’t find public support, and the inevitable realization of doom is upon them for their failure to secure a need or fund their own existence, the route has become all too familiar; extort your value from Washington.

If unions were so great they would have taken over as the predominant employee representation in this country, but low and behold their benefits and values are as speculative as Obama’s trustworthiness on any given subject.

My view is any group that has coerced its value from government intervention, and forced its predominance upon civilization with coerced political power and not a fundamental need given from societies desires should be looked upon as a threat to liberty and free choice.

The Unions seemed to be using backdoor leverage to maintain their value which is being spurned from the work place because their product isn’t adding to the success of the work place at this moment.

I don’t see how we can compete or succeed with this government induced practice of political favoritism toward special interest groups for the sake of party strength in exchange for Americas survival.

We are paying dearly for Obama’s misguided will to borrow our future financial solubility for political coerced power today, that he and Congress can’t seem to curtail.

“Essentially, the unions know that the government would backstop their negotiating position. They would demand outrageous contract terms knowing government arbitrators will “split the baby,” even if the terms are economically unviable for the employer”

- I wish I could predict the future like this!

Ron,

I disagree that greatness automatically dominates over other.

This all too common argument that: “If it’s soo good, then we would not need to force people to adopt it” is fatally flawed in my own opinion.

Because it supposes that if what’s good cannot dominate on it’s own, then some government or other force must impose it on others.

Sometimes, even what’s good and what’s best cannot impose itself and nobody wants it and it disappears in oblivion.

Freedom is not about choosing what’s best or what’s great, freedom is about being free to make mistakes and correct those mistakes on your own.

Freedom is not concerned about what’s good or bad, it’s concerned about freedom.

Under freedom, unions would be made of willful and voluntary members who could anytime leave or join or agree on binding membership contracts.

Under freedom there would be trade unions but they could not coerce or intimidate their way into recruitment and factory and business owners could hire scabs.

Freedom is what’s good.

Texas Rex,

What would you prefer, “Union Made” or “Made In China” ?

I could not believe it when I heard Barack Obama saying about United Auto Workers that Unions were not part of the problem but they are part of the solution.

I can’t believe that Barack Obama thinks that unions, especially the infamous UAW, could make the car industry more competitive in America.

At this point, it was clear that Barack Obama was pandering to unions to buy their votes.

Yes, Obama is a liar and electorally minded.

And all his “we’re going to tax 5% of Americans to give it back to 95%” And his $250,000 a year figure.

Barack Obama is clearly a power hungry marxist wanting to buy the majority vote using the rich’s money.

Why only 12% of the workforce? Because union workers are paid above their productivity level. They are pricing themselves right out of jobs. It’s that simple.

Remember before the Globalists shoved NAFTA down out throats, you would here that “”a dollar would circulate through the economy 7-11 times”". Where are all the high tech jobs we were promised? Mexico was to have so many jobs that it would end migration. Now we compete against a VAT tax in other countries that gives then a 19% trade advantage. CEO wages went from 20-1 to 200-1. Then we want to blame unions for not being able to compete. The dumbing down of education is another major cause, of 190 countries in the world all but 30 are third world, these thirty have the ability to produce steel hence manufacture. Of the thirty industrialized nation the US ranks 28 in math and 29 in science. The only way the US can compete is to destroy the middle class, but remember were the jobs go so goes the research and development.