Blankenship story coming up on 60 minutes.

[D. Tidrow]

You can try unsucessfully to disparage it as a daddy story if you want, but you offered zero evidence of personal experience. It doesn't get much more personal than living in the house and seeing it firsthand. And I'm talking about an entire company treated well, not one man. You offer a bunch of opinion, not fact. Come back when you have something of substance to add. Until then quit drinking the union kool aid. They may be able to blow smoke up your ass but not everyone is as gullible as you.Unions have outlived their usefulness.

I beg to differ Einstein, I belong to the oldest Union in existence. The BLET, look at the non Union railroads and get back to me.

[D. Tidrow]

Do ya now?Well check this fiction out...........your a smart guy with an unbiased opinion.Unions are a cancer, iradication is the only cure.............very similar to lobbyists and political action committees.

You clearly don't know all unions, only your preconceived perception of unions. Maybe before you run your liberal buttered up lips, you might do your homework before you declare all unions are a cancer. BLE, was the first Union. I'm pretty proud of that. So are you saying bbq man all unions are cancers? Railroaders are pretty strong, whether it is is your state or mine.

[D. Tidrow]

You clearly don't know all unions, only your preconceived perception of unions. Maybe before you run your liberal buttered up lips, you might do your homework before you declare all unions are a cancer. BLE, was the first Union. I'm pretty proud of that. So are you saying bbq man all unions are cancers? Railroaders are pretty strong, whether it is is your state or mine.

I got pretty good influence

[COKEandaSMILE]

Norm,

You know what's more personal than seeing something? Actually experiencing it yourself!

I have first hand experience working non and Union in the same trade. That is fact. The info I posted here is from the life I've lived, not someone else's.

What's your own experience working both non and Union?

[70satomic]

He should be put in one of his coal mine ' s for a year or two

[Bubstr]

All you guys need to know about Unions, is in 1960 47% of the working population was Union and the Middle class worker took home 24% of the GDP dollar. Now only 6% are Union and the middle class only takes home 1% of the GDP dollar. As the Unions become weaker, also does the middle class. If you want to talk about isolated cases, fine. Your just fooling yourself. I've worked at both Union and non Union shops. If I had my choice, it would be a non union shop, surrounded by union shops. Sure let them pay for the only one that will lobby for me. I'm about due some welfare entitlements. If we can get rid of Lobbies make term limits, Fixed immigration quotas and write work safety laws and child labor laws in stone, I would agree, we don't need unions. As long as the Executive branch can enforce only the laws they choose to and Corporations and Financial banking is considered to be a person and can give as much as they want to campaigns, We as average people don't have a chance unless we are brought together by something.

[old fan]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/us-coal-decline_n_2621904.html

[illiniracing]

All you guys need to know about Unions, is in 1960 47% of the working population was Union and the Middle class worker took home 24% of the GDP dollar. Now only 6% are Union and the middle class only takes home 1% of the GDP dollar. As the Unions become weaker, also does the middle class. If you want to talk about isolated cases, fine. Your just fooling yourself. I've worked at both Union and non Union shops. If I had my choice, it would be a non union shop, surrounded by union shops. Sure let them pay for the only one that will lobby for me. I'm about due some welfare entitlements. If we can get rid of Lobbies make term limits, Fixed immigration quotas and write work safety laws and child labor laws in stone, I would agree, we don't need unions. As long as the Executive branch can enforce only the laws they choose to and Corporations and Financial banking is considered to be a person and can give as much as they want to campaigns, We as average people don't have a chance unless we are brought together by something.

And that folks is the best union vs non union statement i have ever read.

[Dante Toledo, OH]

The company I work for has about 200 shops across the country. Only six are union. The Union shops have it drastically better. I am glad I live in union country.

[Mams]

Unions are a cancer, iradication is the only cure.............very similar to lobbyists and political action committees.

... and Democrats & Republicans!

[Barbecueboy]

A good paying, safe, non-union mining job would not be there if not for the pressure put on the industry by unions. Stockholders and CEOs do not make concessions out of the goodness of their hearts.

And union bosses operating under the guise of worker safety and well being aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts either.......just pointing it out.

[Barbecueboy]

I got pretty good influence

Being under the influence maybe.......

And yes, they are a cancer to productivity and equitably priced goods and services.....they all started with good intentions, like many good politicians do.

[Bubstr]

Hate to disagree with you on this, but Unions have ZERO to do with wages in non-union shops.

I'll give an example, we have 2 companies in my immediate area that do the same exact type of work (welding, large machinery building). They BOTH pay well over $20 per hour + benefits for most skilled workers. NEITHER are Union or have ever been Union. The closest Union job is well over 40 minutes away and pays LESS per hour and has less benefits.

Competition for employees is what drives up wages, not unions. if anything, Unions keep wages down as it has to be bargained every so many years so Steve who makes $20 an hour will get a guaranteed $0.50 an hour wage increase every 2 years (even if he's a horrible worker and does nothing), whereas Joe who runs circles around Steve and gets more work and productivity done doesn't get rewarded for his hard work (he gets that same $0.50 per hour wage increase every 2 years.

Unions basically are the "socialism" that everyone seems to hate. Unions fight for everyone to get exactly the same thing instead of hard work and dedication by employees being what gets them bigger raises than the guy just putting in his time standing next to him.

Plus, to top it off, Unions get the "union dues" from everyone and usually do zilch to actually help out the workers (a community close to me lost a Whirlpool Plant (formerly Maytag) because of the short-sightedness of the union over years and years. they fought tooth and nail to ensure that Maytag never ever upgraded equipment to build their machines and when they sold out to Whirlpool, it was an easy decision to close the plant. The equipment was so out-dated that it was wayyyyy cheaper to close it and move to a new location or build the machines at another factory than it was to retro-fit the existing one. The factory they moved the volume to was non-union and paid higher wages than the one they closed.

Tell me more about Maytag getting higher wages now. That plant was moved to a union shop in Galesburg Il. and closed and moved to Mexico now. The move to Illinois was just to shed retirement responsibilities. They knew it was ending up south of the border anyway. If there wasn't a union in Iowa, they could have sent it directly to Mexico

How about all the Iowa and Illinois, John Deere jobs going to Mexico and Russia. No non union shop can match the wages they are paying there.

[Josh Bayko]

Ask those non union workers how much they have in their annuity fund/ pension fund....

Just about every non union employer out there has some kind of 401k or other investment package for retirement. Or, you know, you can build your own retirement portfolio and have complete control, which is a lot better than having somebody else tell you what THEY'RE doing with YOUR money.

[D. Tidrow]

Being under the influence maybe.......And yes, they are a cancer to productivity and equitably priced goods and services.....they all started with good intentions, like many good politicians do.

Ok but what's your excuse?