The power struggle between workers and management has been going on for a long time. When the unions first started to gain power, there was a real need for them to protect workers. The pendulum of power swung to the side of the unions in the 50's and 60's and some of their demands have resulted in harm to many companies and the people they employed by saddling those companies with a higher cost structure. Now, as power has shifted away from unions and back towards management, combined with an economy that forces us to compete globally against 3rd world labor, we will start to see abuses by management that will once again make unions more attractive. This change may not occur in my lifetime, but the pendulum swings both ways. Unions have ceased to be an issue in this country. Only a very small percentage of workers belong to a union. While labor costs are part of the Hostess issue, mismanagement and changing tastes are a bigger piece of the pie (pun intended). What is a bigger problem in this country seems to me to be the rising disparity between the compensation of workers and management and our rapidly shrinking middle class (the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer). At one time, unions were what made our middle class, but I no longer believe they can do that again, simply because they they interfere with the free market by artificially raising labor prices above supply and demand levels, therefore decreasing the competitiveness of companies. Bu there has to be another solution than paying our workers 50 cents a day to compete with Vietnames workers or complete automation to eliminate all workers, I just don't know what it is.
|