I tend to agree in general, but as has been pointed out earlier, these agreements do contain other more political agenda items which do cause some of the concerns. But yes, in fact from a wage perspective, we are pricing ourselves out of the world marketplace. I don't see any backing off of that.
I would say from a cost perspective rather than a wage perspective. As you know, wages are just a part of total costs of goods.
I submit that union work rules cost us more than union wages; that the threat and costs of lawsuits affect our manufactrurers, distributors, and resellers quite a bit increasing their costs, as well as the loss of risk taking and entreprenuership which give us new, cheaper products; that unnecessary regulations are a big impediment to our economic competitiveness; that high and misapplied taxes are a detriment to business; government subsidies distort the market and raise costs, tariffs on imports to protect special interests like coffe and sugar distort the market and trade; government involvement in hiring and firing practices distort business decisions; the costs of health care and other benefits are greatly increased by government polocies; and on and on.
Wages are the least of these concerns in our business costs and competitiveness.