Good for them!

I know a lot of people are against unions but we owe much of our work related perks to unions. Our 8 hour work days, days off, overtime pay, vacation and sick days, work safety rules, all came as a result of the blood, sweat and tears of union workers.

It's no coincidence that this country was economically stronger when unions were stronger. For the last thirty years the rich have gotten richer and poor poorer at unprecedented rates and the middle class are virtually extinct, that is in no small part due to weaker unions. When Ronald Reagan became president he fired all the striking Air Traffic Controller and that signaled a new day that continues until to today, where American worker's were no longer respected. That eroded worker's rights and gave the power to corporations, who by definition only care about a profit margin.

Many people are against unions because the country's elites (who want to share as little of their profits as possible with workers) have waged a very successful propaganda campaign against unions. They have vilified unions and to do so they use the worst examples of union abuses, such as the autoworker's union and even the MTA's TWU in NY, but these are not representative of most unions, not by a long shot. I admit that some unions can get too powerful and that's something that should be dealt with but to eliminate American workers from process altogether has proven to be disastrous for America.

Corporations will cry about having to move overseas because of unions and the high cost of doing business here but is that really necessary for them to survive or to just make an obscene profit margin? Let's use these apparel companies as an example, when they have a T-Shirt manufactured in Asia for 50 cents and turn around and sell it for $50 here, is that 1000% profit margin necessary? When Nike pays $6 dollars for a pair of Air Jordans and then sells them for $150, is that a necessary profit margin? If those products were made here and cost 5 times what they cost to manufacture overseas couldn't they still enjoy a very nice profit without destroying America? If a small company like American Apparel can employ 4,000 American workers in California and still be profitable then why can't these bigger, stronger, richer corporations do the same? The short answer is, they can and should but their quest for obscene profit levels is destroying our country and politicians stand by and just watch because they're beholden to the corporations' millions.

In a country where corporations are now even controlling our government through unlimited campaign contributions and constant lobbying, we need unions of workers to balance the equation. Corporations don't care about America, don't care about unemployment, don't care about the future of our children, all they care about is their quarterly profits. Corporations have no soul, no sense of morality, their sole purpose is to create a profit and that's ok and needed for our country to move forward but their must be a balance to it. The only way we can counter that is with a strong coalition of workers who have America's best interest at heart.

This is not an anti-corporation rant, I'm against any unchecked or unbalanced power. I believe that corporations are necessary and part of what once made this country the greatest in the world. However, they cannot be left unchecked and without a balance, as they have in the last thirty years and since politicians have become their puppets, the only thing left is coalitions of American workers standing firm against them. It's also no coincidence that most revolutions have been the result of worker upheaval.

America, we need to reconsider.

Bunch of whiners. Do the job you're getting paid for, or find a new one, like the rest of us.