If we can get campaign finance reform to restrict campaign contributions to include only registered voters eligible to contribute to candidates who would appear on their ballots, we can free up labor unions to attend to their main business.
Labor unions need to revisit their roots as guilds, when masters trained apprentices. Master craftsmen need to be the instructors in our trade schools who identify talented applicants to become the best craftsmen in the world.
Labor unions need to be less of a drag on the businesses they have contracts with. I spent my entire career running them off. Unions lost most of their private sector members over the past 40 years and they now represent mostly government employees, who should not be allowed to form unions.
There are still unions in utility companies and very large, very old companies like Boeing, AT&T, GM and Ford, but electronics manufacturing and foreign auto plants are largely non-union.
Unions typically have pension plans that are unsustainable and they need to convert these to 401K plans. The UAW does have a two-tiered wage structure that pays new employees about half of the wages paid to their more senior employees. Foreign auto companies in the US are non-union and actually pay more than the union US auto companies.
Unions have a long way to go in order to develop a more sustainable path. Many say they are no longer necessary.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment