Hedge,
For fucks sake man, think about that statement for just a moment.
Do people not realize that Union contracts are negotiated and renegotiated all the time. The best example I can think of are professional athletes. While it is very easy to say that Johnny Goodplayer makes too much money and that it's a disgrace that they would strike. When baseball players struck and went to mediation, several team owners were forced to open their financial records due to a legal motion made by the union. The owners took the players union to court in an effort to abrogate or throw out their negotiated labor agreement and once forced to disclose their finances they tried to back out of mediation. They were not allowed to do so and shortly thereafter several improprieties were exposed. The owner of the Angels was paying his sister in excess of 65 million a year as a consultant for instance. Now I know that many people allow themselves to overlook certain things, but the fact of the matter is that the owners also sign those contracts. Owners are also allowed to toy with their finances and actually not even disclose much of it due to antitrust laws and such, while a union's wages are public record. So when an auto company, baseball team owner, or airline agrees to a collective bargaining agreement, they are setting the wage scale themselves. They are paying what they can afford and still make a profit.
What you should be saying is when is enough actually enough? When an oil company make 367 billion dollars in one quarter do you really think that they are struggling to pay union wages? Maybe you should be asking where the egregious profit and price gouging line starts, how much is enough? Keep in mind, small business owners rarely have to use union labor. So when AA filed for bankruptcy, or USAIR, or United, Northwest, Branniff, Eastern, TWA, Pan Am all file for bankruptcy and put hundreds of thousands out of work, do you really think it was because unions were costing them too much? You don't think it could be because they, the owners and board of directors, mismanaged funds, paid themselves bonuses after demanding concessions from the workforce, bought new equipment and bought out competitors at inflated cost? Just because you don't see it on Fox News doesn't mean it isn't true or doesn't exist.
Union Contracts help to set the standard for all industry wages and benefits. Nobody is going to agree to pay wages that they cannot afford or that will cause them to make zero profit. Every owner makes more than their employees, it's how much more that is disgusting.
Hope that helps,
FDC
