What is it about unions that people don't understand? [View All]

[Joe Fields]

Or refuse to understand?

Or refuse to acknowledge, because it would interfere with their own personal, greedy agenda?


Do these southern senators think for a second that the average worker at a Toyota or Honda plant in the U.S. would be making an average of 24 dollars an hour, if it weren't for the union autoworkers?

Does anyone out here for a minute think that many NON UNION jobs in many industries wouldn't be paying what they do, if it weren't for unions? They may not make union scale, but what would many of these jobs pay, if there were no unions?

I worked for a time at a non union plant in Kansas City, that supplied doors to the Pontiac Firebirds that are built at the local GM plant. This was almost 20 years ago, and I made almost 10 dollars an hour putting armrests on door panels. Not bad pay for the midwest back then. I've worked a lot of blue collar jobs that paid well, some union, some non union, but I owe the unions, because I know what this country was like, before organized labor, and I firmly believe that many of the non union jobs I've had wouldn't have paid nearly the wages were it not for unions. Unions have had a way of lifting many people's wags. I also have a strong suspicion of what it will be like, once unions vanish, and it looks like it could happen.

In general, I'm not a violent man, but if I could, I'd slap down every one of those bloviating senators who voted against the bailout.