I also believe the unions were largely to blame for GM and Chrysler going belly up a few years back. Their highly entrenched unions largely prevented them from innovating and competing with other, non-union automakers (like Toyota and Honda) who have found that if you take care of your employees with a fair wage and good treatment, there’s absolutely no need for unions in the first place.

What’s more, many companies have also now discovered that trying to innovate in a collective bargaining atmosphere is a lot like trying to drive a car with your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time….things go nowhere.

And, in today’s highly competitive global marketplace, companies that can’t innovate because of their highly restrictive collective bargaining agreements are eventually doomed to failure. And when they do EVERYONE (except perhaps the union bosses)loses.

Like I said, collective bargaining worked when employers had little choice as to where they operated and who they hired. But now they do. And there are also plenty of people waiting in line for jobs these days…under any working conditions.

Unfortunately, it would appear that the mafioso types now running our unions have yet to wake up to those facts.

To which I might add…”nonproductive”. Unions are like lawyers…they add absolutely NOTHING to a nation’s productivity.

Collective bargaining simply drives the cost of everything produced upward because manufacturers simply pass along the cost of all that nonproductive union labor to those who purchase their products.

And then we have the nerve to wonder why many of our union-infested manufacturing jobs have since been outsourced to China!

To be frank, I have absolutely NO sympathy for these people who lost their jobs due to their union’s outrageous wage demands which, in turn, simply forced their employers to look elsewhere for cheaper labor. They largely have absolutely NOBODY to blame but themselves for their (and their union’s) greed.

Clearly, such nonsense used to work in the past when employers didn’t have a choice. But, in today’s global marketplace, now they do.

What;s more, collective bargaining has absolutely NO place in the public sector beyond such things as working conditions and other such “hygene” factors.

Holding taxpayers (who usually have absolutely NO say in the matter) hostage to outrageous public sector union-backed wage demands is much like holding a gun to people’s heads and saying “pay up…or else”.

It would appear that the citizens of Wisconsin (and other government entities with similar public unions) are fed up with all such nonsense….as they well should be.

Apparently the Wisconsin voters prefer non-unions in their states. It is their choice.