What about the jobs?

As I was reading the day’s news, I found that what I have been saying is a bit more accurate than some would admit. The stocks took another slide, once again. Those of you with enough disposable income will or have already found, that is exactly what it is, disposable! You should take it and flush it down the toilet or better yet, use it to help some of those less fortunate. In this way you may see a quicker return of your investment.


I may not be an economic "expert" but I do believe I am in a better position to see what is happening.

I am one of the laid off "working class" and most of the people who have had salaries of $50,000 or less a year and even some that make a little bit more, are not spending. I literally laughed at those that thought Disney buying Marvel comics would help bring the stocks up a bit. REALLY? I mean it is just an entertainment company. What do the two produce that people really want? Nobody wants to spend on frivolous entertainment except those with a bunch of money! It is not creating more jobs, to the contrary, more people may now lose some jobs in both companies! It also shows that big money will just be making more money. It won't lower the cost of movies or comic books, period!

This did not produce lower fuel or food prices nor did it help in any way with healthcare and as I just stated, it will not produce jobs!

But some "experts" still see economic recovery around the corner. Too bad you can't hear me laughing!

I am now going to hit on something that will even make some of the working class gasp. Unions! I am sorry but for the most part, unions have outlived themselves. Sure they are good for some areas and people such as electricians, carpenters, and steel workers, if there are any left. Federal and state laws have been in effect for many years that can protect you in many of the ways a union says they protect you. The only difference is that the worker needs to negotiate his salary, not someone else. A worker pays a good amount of money to join and to stay in a union job and without a doubt they do bring higher wages to a certain amount of people. But let me tell you, some of the reasons are for the unions own pocket.

My father was a union man most of his adult life, right into retirement! And at one time the unions would force a company to add a label to the goods produced that stated "Made with Pride in the USA". And the products WERE quality. But that quality went out the window long before the jobs went to China and elsewhere.

An example; > My first job in engineering was at a sheet metal manufacturer back in the early 90's. The office workers were not union but the shop was. It was a smaller company but they paid a premium for those that had been in the union for quite some time. I got the chance to not only observe how these people worked, but also the quality of not only the final product, but also the attitude of the union workers. The quality was sub-par of both. The attitude was "I am union, you cannot fire me". Many of these workers made over $20.00 an hour and would move about their jobs that would make a tortoise seem like he was high energy. Any non-union employee would have been fired or at best laid off for doing the same type of work. Result? Those union workers basically forced the company to charge a higher price for a product that was CRAP! No customer wants to buy crap, so eventually the company went out of business!

I also worked as a union employee and found corruption was the name of the game. One textile company I had worked for had such a union. The company wanted to change the new 3 year contract after we were in it for only a few months. They wanted to shorten the contract to yearly as well as changing the workday to 12 hours without having to pay overtime and other cuts. We were only making around $7.50 an hour when the average union job was around $10.00 - $14.00 an hour for the same type of work. Our own shop steward endorsed this change and the union reps told some of my fellow employees that since we elected them as our bargaining agent, they would agree to the change without a vote. Unfortunately for them, I was not going to allow them to treat my fellow employees that way. I told them that if they chose to go that route I would contact our major customer and inform them of what was taking place. Our customer was the Federal Government! Their contract with the company stated that any labor dispute that was questionable would put an immediate halt to all orders. I forced a vote but before it could be taken I was fired from my position for sleeping on my lunch break.?? The union reps tried to keep me from the meeting hall because of this and stated that our contract went by New York labor laws and I did not have the right to be there because I was fired. I pulled out federal labor law and stuffed it in their face and they had no choice but to let me in and speak my mind. The change was voted down. The principles sold out their ownership of the company and a new ownership seamlessly took over!

Now you may say how could I work both sides of the street (union vs. non-union)? Well the union was not out for the workers. They stood on the side of the company and they were flawed! Ok so now you tell me other unions have gotten higher wages for many more people! True. However those people were not worth the paper that the contract was written on. A dock worker for a trucking company known by an "employee given name" of Corn Flakes paid most of their long time workers well over $20.00 an hour and that employee could not unload a full size trailer in a shift because they spent most of the time BSing with others. Mean while another Union worker known as a "casual" was making less than $14.00 an hour and could unload the same trailer plus half another one in a shift. The casual had to sign an agreement that forced them to pay full union dues but without all the benefits and security the union gave to the fulltime workers and a wage that was frozen at around 13.75 an hour. the wage was fair but the rest was not.

That trucking company no longer exists, but the union does.

My point on the unions is this, except for those listed previously, the unions only helped to breed sub-par quality, laziness in the employees, and forced many companies to go where labor is cheaper! The higher prices we pay for goods can be partly blamed on many of these unions. And when these companies leave the US and go to a foreign country to manufacture their goods without union labor, the price of those goods do not and have not nor will they, come down. This puts even more money in the pockets of the greedy corporations. The only good I could see coming from companies moving to China and elsewhere, is that it is shrinking these unions. After all, if the unions tried the same thing in China and elsewhere, they would be gone forever because those countries would not allow it and the reps would just disappear one by one.

Once again, I say that the energy that is being put into healthcare reform, would be better spent on bringing the jobs back to this country, raising the minimum wage to one that would allow survival as well as a mandatory cost of living raise and getting rid of many unions or at least stop them from getting super high wages for people who are not keeping up with their non-union counterparts. Granted that it is not as easy as it seems I am saying, but more jobs means more money in the economy and possibly more people being able to afford healthcare. And in the meantime focus on getting the price of healthcare down.

At the moment, if Healthcare reform were to be implemented without bringing more jobs, then our country will be nothing more than a welfare state.