I think that even back then, the times were a changing.
The industries those people were in were already looking for better people to do the jobs, and if you were someone who could work harder or smarter than the next guy, your wage was going up. Other industries were already pulling the go-getters out of the fields and moving them up the ladder.
The unions were promising that if you were a sluggard, you would get the pay of the hard worker with out actually doing what he did. And if you were a really lousy sort, you could become a floor warden for the union and do NO work, but get paid like the rest.
And we end up with guys on a assembly line, making as much as a school teacher or policeman or a military person on deployment.
I remember the video I saw of a union floor meeting in Michigan where an individual stood up and says he deserved the same type of retirement and medical benefits as any soldier because he had stood his time on the assembly line just like the soldier had did his time. And the crowd cheered him on.
Look at New York, hundreds of “union shops” have filed WARN notices and have pulled out of this rancid state to relocate to Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas and other sun belt states and have left the Unions behind...other union disputes have left workers high and dry, and what happens when the 26 weeks of unemployment runs out? And during who’s administrations has this occurred?