The recent Auto Workers contracts with Ford and Chrysler continue to make Union Leaders wealthy, while leaving the workers with nothing but un-paid bills because he has no chances for steady good paying employment. So I say that the time has come to get rid of all American Unions, because the worker needs the high monthly dues taken out of their checks, and no type of job protection is being given to the workers.

In memory of my father who grew up in the depression, I always remember what he said about Unions,"They are a necessary evil."  However, now that I have worked in big business and was illegally cut out by the way they offered me more responsibility and no extra payment when they as my responsibilities grew significantly, and then a year later they offered me additional responsibility and told me they needed to cut me by $35K, and I asked, "How is that work?" and their only reply was that if I didn't like it, my severance was downstairs.   And, finally the problem with the auto unions here was that they allowed some inappropriate activity to go on too long, yet now they are affected by the global market, yet you can see that China and other similar countries don't have the same safely and human resource standards that we are legally required to have in this country, for they allow child and slave labor, and provide barely if at all the wages to feed a family, so certainly they can build cheaper cars off the lives of their own.  However, in spite of the Free Trade market, we should be putting a tariff on them, to ensure that our companies that treat employees more fairly also get a fair advantage.  I just don't understand how our country would allow employees to lose their retirement benefits when in fact it was their earned money that was put into it.    We need reasonable unions now more than ever to protect big business from taking advantage of their employees.  Yet strategically, keeping to the auto industry example, we need to complete with the Toyota Prius and othe fuel efficient hybrids.  I just traded in my Cadillac SRX for a Toyota Prius and gave up the sunroof, electric seats, heated seats and sunroof, for a car that still has leather seats, a navigations system and great BOSE radio, CD program, and most of unbelievable fuel effieciency of 42 mpg average, and I drive daily on the hilly roads of Pittsburgh.

I  was employed and worked at Delco Electronics in Kokomo, In for 41 years. I agree that unions got just as wasteful as GM was and probably still is. Delco was their leading edge in electronics till GM decided to cut advanced engineering way back. GM had made the decision in the mid 70's [any one associated with engeering was assembled in 1977 and told of GM'S long term goals for Delco] that the the Kokomo facility would become home to possibly engineering, sales, prototyping, and pilot runs. Manufacturing would all be overseas. So when they could not accomplish the long term goal, GM decided to basically kill engineering by stopping much of advanced engineering and development and that later they merged all component divisions into Delphi [most of the not-profitable divisions had been killed many years ago by not investing in upgrading in new technology, manufacturing processes, and equipment. Many of the factories were working with 1950 and 60's facilities, processes and with old product lines. How can you compete with up to date products, processes, and plants?]  So you see complacency in both the union and business with their not wanting to stand for the long term interests of GM and take the easy way [short term] way out . Many times I saw that bean counters [ACCOUNTING] made their decisions and stopped many projects that even many staff engineers said made no long term business since because the products were forecasted to be very profitable. Am I bitter about this? Yes, I am. It is still my belief that much of Delphi  and probably much more of GM would still be profitable, providing many great  jobs for both salary and union workers .  

I agree with you in reference to unions, they had a place in our society at one time, but I truly believe that they have added to the economy problems that we have today. They helped the American worker obtain better pay and benefits, but now they have priced those workers out of the job market. As in your case more and more is going to foreign countries to produce the products at a lower cost. Now the American workers no longer have jobs, or must settle for a far lesser paying job. There are still companies that take advantage of the employees and the unions can assist in putting a stop to that. However I feel a person should be paid according to what they are worth and the amount of effort they put forth. The unions created people that felt that their job was so secure they did not put forth the proper effort. If you are a hard worker and always put forth your best effort, why should you get paid the same as one of the people that just relied on the union to give them their raise? As a good and very reliable worker you should be paid according to performance and not just want a union contract says everyone regardless of effort should get.

Roger