[Eagles Talon IV]

The move to cheaper overseas labor was seeded by the unions greed. The fact they are but 15% of mfg is do to their own greed. In the 1960's my mother worked in the office for AT&T as a computer operator. At that time the unions were strong and fought tooth and nail over the attempts of the company to modernize and increase productivity via the increased use of technology. As the salaries of the workers in these offices climbed higher and higher the cost to switch over to full or almost full mechanization became more and more reasonable. At last the tipping point was reached and the computers my mom fed data to for billing etc became advanced enough to not need human supervision to any great extent. The machines take no sick days, get no vacations and work 24/7/365. It is the unions themselves who brought this switch to technology on more rapidly then it would otherwise have occurred.

I grew up in the 50's and remember Jimmy Hoffa publicly stating that if his unions demands weren't met he would "bring this country to it's knees". He could have done it too. Instead these sorts of threats only caused companies to find ways to do without as many people. The greed of the unions became the seeds of their own demise.

AS for the gov't unions, they are protected by the p[political correctness crowd and they elected officials. Their day too will come.

[Willie Green]

The move to cheaper overseas labor was seeded by the unions greed.

Actually, that trend was initiated by post-WWII government policy as part of the Cold War strategy to rebuild our allies and block the spread of communism. Unfortunately, the transnational corporations that helped us successfully pursue that goal have now found it profitable to cooperate with communist nations, and assist them in plundering and undermining our peaceful prosperity.