"Does anyone expect a 30 year retiree with a good pension and healthcare benefits that most don't enjoy to be critical of the union which fought for those benefits??? It wont happen...."


With respect, I am admitadly as biased as an insider can be, but I think my life experiences are at least as valid as a well read outsider.

That pension and benifit package of mine was guranteed and funded by negotiated wages defered. Those health benifits that we once thought were a given are now eating a good portion of my fixed income with new fees and co-pays every time I turn around.

It was funny when I first read the comments earlier in this thread about intimidation, i jumped to the conclusion that managment was the intimadator. In my world the "head buster, worker exploiter" was the boss. Just another perspective, I guess.

I wonder if you feel that the goose is dead for everyone and that america is doomed to become a third world economy, or just dead for the middle class skilled and semi-skilled workers?

I am interested in what your background is rs, and upon what your retirement future depends?