Start with the union strike on Caterpillar in Joliet. Cat stock has plummeted from a high of $117 to Friday's finish of near $89. All indications are that this country is still in some form of depression or recession. Caterpillar has recently moved several segment of their manufacturing sector to lower cost right-to-work states who offer the same kind of incentives as almost all other states, including Illinois. Illinois has a hostile business environment yet has made certain concessions to major manufacturers to make it financially feasible for those companies to remain in Illinois, at least for now.
I would not be surprised if Cat left Joliet in the next few years and some strikers may find themselves working at minimum wages if they could even find jobs.
Companies are in business to make a profit, more profit in some years to offset what they know, will be bad years, (CAT's great last quarter is a good example),such as we are currently experiencing whether we believe it or not.. There are those, especially in union boss dominated unions, who are led to believe that the workers should dictate to companies how these companies are run, how much the work they do is worth, pay scales for executives, more vacation time, personal days, the right to not work if they don't want to, etc. More evidence of creeping socialism I've warned you about for years on this blog site.
I do not oppose unions. There was in past years, a great need for unions such as there was a great demand for slavery. Much has changed. The Teamsters Union and Widmers worked together successfully for 22 years and the the company that still bears my name, for 20+ years. I am from the The Samuel Gompers school. He felt that union bosses, by denouncing freedom of choice for workers and who believed that only by compulsion, could union bosses control their workers. I add, and these belligerent bosses, ensure their reelection. Union members, mainly Democrats, who are mostly herd-like, (fortunately, many are not) are taught to believe in following the leader without thinking or reading about what-ever position be the state of the union while being educated (brain-washed) to only the one side of of the situation, mainly,what's in it for me.
The Wisconsin union bosses told the teachers not to take ANY cuts or changes in their contract while the state struggled financially in the late year 2000s. While workers in the private sector in Wisconsin were being laid off, hours, earnings and benefits reduced to meet the depressive situation.
But not the Wisconsin Teachers Union who feel they are under paid and generally oppressed by those above them. I always recommend people who feel that way, are also free to get another job. This is still a free country to leave one job for another,
Also, I don't like liars, especially those of the Obama ilk who seem to dominate the public unions today. Yes, we have incompetent leaders in the public sector as well as the private sector. Those who are over seeing them are responsible for correcting the situation and the option of firing them is not the option of those they are supposed to lead. Exsept, in the public sector, you can vote them out.
If you have someone willing to run who would, you believe, do a better job.
As a long time observer of union employees work habits, especially in the Public Works sector, my observations lead me to believe that maybe 60% are efficient including management; managers who are usually promoted up through the union ranks. If we have thousands of bridges that need repair now, we will still have thousands of bridges that need repair 10 years from now and this lack of progress can't be solely pinned on "lack of budgeted funds".
Except in RTW states, these workers are all union. Reading, listening and observing, if I had my "druthers", I wold prefer to live out the rest of my life in a RTW state.
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