[Ducati] Strike at Harley (NDC)

[Scott Taylor]

There was definitely a time when unions were absolutely necessary to protect 
workers from robber-barrons whose jobs killed the workers, both literally 
and figuratively.  When there's 100 guys at the door looking for your job 
because it's a job anybody can do with minimal OTJ training you have to 
protect your job and fight for fair compensation.  Times have changed. 
Especially in the trades/manufacturing jobs.  Workers, especially skilled 
workers, are hard to come by these days, and they command premium wages and 
benefits because the competition for them is so high.  That's why unions in 
general, and particularly trades/manufacturing unions are on the decline. 
Workers no longer need to hand significant chunks of their pay over to 
fat-cat union bureaucracies in order to ensure themselves a fair standard of 
living.  In the 80s I watched the union strike International Harvester out 
of business where I lived in Illinois, and in the 90s I saw the union do the 
same thing to the Caterpillar plant five minutes down the street from Harley 
here in York.  That complex is still largely abandoned to this day.  That's 
thousands of union workers out of work in two small towns.  Now the 
autoworkers are looking down the barrel of big trouble because of the 
contracts they've won for themselves.  Lost jobs, lost benefits, forced 
early retirements and buyouts, and communities that can no longer support 
themselves because the jobs have disappeared.  You'll have to explain to me 
how that's in the best interest of the workers.  Since the union workers are 
demanding their 'fair share' of the pie today because profits are up does 
that also mean that they'll take their 'fair share' of cuts when the company 
falls again on hard times?  This grab what you can when you can attitude is 
irresponsible and hurts workers in the long run.  Striking or bargaining 
your job out of existence seems like the 'dumb' thing to me.