Did labor unions destroy our industrial base in this country?

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We used to make steel, good automobiles, clothing, built the biggest buildings in the world and had the finest infrastructure, and a great education system where kids would grow up to put men on the moon and become inventors...than the Unions came around and drove up the prices, protected the jobs of bad teachers, and forced people to by products from producers abroad to avoid being held hostage by them. Now, the industries that they claimed to protect barely exist. Did we not became a superpower because of the late 1800's industrial revolution?
 
Yes.They priced themselves out of the market.Not to mention that they do less work than non union employees.
 
totally!!!ex: cars cost so much, because we are paying labor union's dues like health care.Companies are forced to pay health care and even retired medical health care. The only way out of it is filing chapter 11, and the auto makers are too stuborn.They would rather beg the gov for a hand out instead.
 
Unions were needed at the turn of the 20th century. They are now nothing more than a powerful, rich, voting tool.
 
Globalism killed capitalism in the USA. And republican trickle down economics was the weapon it used.Trickle down economics, during the age of globalism? The rich shopped the globe for the cheapest labor on earth. And then trickled our industry out of here.
 
Everything you mentioned is a valid point. People scream "buy American" realizing that we would love nothing more than to be able to do that, except that unions protect the bad workers in those businesses and disallow them from hiring more workers at a slightly lower price, which would benefit everyone. It really is destroying our country, and especially our Education system.
 
No.Unions have recently been in decline, so you can't blame them for the recent problems.We had strong unions in the 50's and 60's and our economy was strong.We need emerging economies to become unionized so that everyone has fair wages and a decent working environment.
 
Your claims and timeline are way off.Unions allow the lazy to remain employed with high pay and ridiculous benefits.
 
The idea of unions is good. Worker's rights and all that, but the fact that they fell to the green eyed monster (greed) has, in fact, destroyed our industrial base.
 
Yes, lets return to working 80 hours week at low pay and bad conditions without rights or benefits and lets pull our kids out of school and put them into the work place so they can help out. Ah, those were the good ol days.Kindatir nailed it....Blame globalization and supply side economics and the conservative revolution because that is exactly what has created the problem.
 
I would put the blame on high production costs for crappy products..just about all of the economic problems in the US are attributed to failed leadership at varying levels.
 
Yes. The standards do not allow for much innovation and/or creativity. A union shop just makes you a button pusher or robot. How is that fulfilling to the workers? It's also severely political.
 
Yes. Unions do not take into account the basic fundamentals of business. As they inflate labor rates, they drive up the cost of the finial products, to the point that it is no long wise to purchase them. Think about this. Why is it cheaper to buy a product manufactured overseas, then shipped to America, import taxes paid on the product, than it is to buy a product made in America by a union shop. If the person running the machine that tightens the lug nuts on the assembly line makes $88.00 per hour (including benefit package) it is no wonder a decent American made car cost over $45,000.00 instead of $16,000.00.
 
You are right, labor unions have been very costly to the country which has escalated the country's inability to be competitive.We now have a man in the White House who is pro-union. This will not help the country at a time when it needs to get much bang for the buck. His being from a closed shop state, a state where liberal politicians and labor union leaders break bread routinely. A city like Chicago lets nobody drive a truck, turn a screwdriver, or even wear a police badge, without a union card. This is the mentality that has gone off to Washington DC to save the country. I can't see that happening sooner rather than later, not for what those guys get in hourly wage, pension, health & welfare, plus annuities required for employers to pay into, for each of their employed union members.
 
No. They put an end to sweat shops, got us 8 hour work days, 2 days off a week. It is greed that lead to companies to outsource the jobs, not a lack of profit but the greed for higher profits with cheaper labor. It finally caught up with them because by denying their largest consumers an income they lost the very consumers they were producing products for. That is why they too are going belly up.
 
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