Blame the unions

[eridani]

http://www.truthout.org/121708LA

The labor movement, which made teachers into empowered professionals and factory workers into middle-class taxpayers, has been under attack for a generation from the forces of phony simplicity.

For every complex crisis - low ISTEP scores, imbalance of trade, an auto industry on the brink - there's an easy answer: Blame the unions.

The idea that collective bargaining has achieved a standard of living that is unfair and unsustainable, rather than one that society as a whole should pursue, is one of our most powerful national myths. Like the glory of war and the frivolousness of environmental protection, union bashing is a bill of goods sold by the most myopic of special interests and bought by ordinary folks against their own interests.

Thus, the United Auto Workers, whose wages and benefits account for 10 percent of their products' cost, and whose layoffs and concessions have been nothing short of devastating, becomes a scapegoat for politicians and voters who look at a train wreck and see a gravy train.

[KharmaTrain]

1. The Last Pillage As They're Kicked Out The Door...

Talk about scortched earth...this is the one "enemy" this regime hasn't been able to take down...organized labor. It has nothing to do with "empowerment", but simply to bust a group that turns out millions of votes for Democrats and to pay off the big money GOOP "investors". It's about breaking the backs of workers to "put them in their place" and deflect the blame from decades of poor management and fiscal wrecklessness.

[Turbineguy]

2. And then there's this:

If it weren't for management, there wouldn't be any Unions.

There'd be no need.

[BridgeTheGap]

3. It's all in HOW businesses are managed.

There are a few businesses that have compassion for the people actually doing the work, up to and including decent pay and benefits. The workers in companies like these don't need a union. But the vast majority of us don't work for companies like these and WE DO NEED UNIONS.
Are unions perfect? Hell no. But neither is government and only libertarians or anarchists want to get rid of it. Unions are the first line of defense for workers and government the second (or should be at least).