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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (9897)	2/20/2012 6:56:38 PM
From: sm1th	Respond to of 85487

When did workers ever get fair wages in history without unions? A hundred years ago, there was little govt protection of workers rights,and unions were perhaps the best option. Today we have countless federal and state agencies to protect workers rights. The main thing that unions do today is make unionized employers uncompetitive. Why is it that unionized GM and Chrysler needed federal bailouts, while Toyota, Nissan, BMW and Honda build cars profitably in the US? Is it perhaps because the unions have priced labor well above its actual value? That is why union representation in the competitive private sector has dropped into irrelevance, while unionization in the non-competitive public sector has soared. If you will agree to reduce govt interference in the labor market to a level where unions are the main protection of employee rights, then I would gladly agree to more unions. And by the way, I have gotten fair wages for almost 40 years, since the last time I belonged to a union.