Good post Argoz...

I have very mixed feeling about unions, in some cases I agree 100% with Coach, in others I disagree and both come from direct experience. I worked in a Pulp & Paper mill in Canada during the summer for 7 years and the work was a mixture of seriously hard labor and quite a load of downtime. I'm not so quick to judge the guys working on the side of the road looking rather nonchalant about their work as I have spent a lot of time in private sector offices and there is a load of lazy arsebags there too. They make a heck of a lot more money and get to wear nice clothes… but are no more useful to the economy. I'm sure most of those guys on the side of the road would take an office job over the ditch digging any day of the week.

Unions have their place in the world, but should be held accountable. I remember when I was young and working in the mill making money for university, my sister passed away... I took 4 days off from my employment and then returned... not heavily motivated, but I was there. Then the company told me that as I was a student they saw no need to provide me with grievance leave... which was a massive blow to both my precarious financial situation as well as to my need to complete my work so I could get some time away to deal with the loss.

My union stepped in. They threatened a mill wide wildcat strike if the company did not honour the right to grievance pay. The company caved and paid. That day was a day where I personally saw for the first time how greedy a corporation could be and also how useful it could be to be collectively organized. Did I see abuses of that power by the union... yes. Did I see abuses by the company... oh hell yes. In fact the management were not a part of the union & didn't have the same level of safety protection. Two of my bosses died two years after I left. The company had sent them out to work on a part of the mill without the required qualifications during a routine shutdown. They both died from gas inhalation.

I think the problem isn't the unions in America and Europe... it's the lack of any kind of protection for laborers in all the other nations of the world. In Dubai, a very wealthy nation, I have personally been to a mosque and paid my Zakat to buy sheep & rice for the poor. When I went to the meal to help and hand out the food, I was shocked to see that the 'poor' were almost all construction workers for the nearby mega-mall. The Imam told me that they very rarely have enough money to eat during the day and rely on the generosity of donations. These guys work 16-hour days in 48-degree heat, 7 days a week with little or no food. Often when walking near my wife’s family house, the workers fixing the brickwork will ask me for water from the house... water.

In places where there are no unions there is often massive abuse. This abuse is also found in a lack of a fair living wage. Those nations are a magnet to greedy corporations looking to make bigger profits. Be it Dubai, Mexico, China etc... companies leave America and go to places where they can get the competitive edge, even if it means massive exploitation. As long as they can keep their abuse out of the media, they will be happy to let it go on.

The problems in America today are not caused by union workers... or at least that is a tiny drop in a very big pond. The problem is the FED and the financial institutions. Look at UBS the other day... the woman in charge of RISK at Lehmen brothers was put in charge of RISK at UBS and somehow missed a trader losing 2 billion plus dollars! How did he lose it? Currency changes, in particular the one made possible by the Swiss National Bank. How many labourers could we afford to pay for 2 billion dollars? How easy was it to avoid this happening? Very.

Here in Europe there are countries with a lot of unions and there are other countries without so many. Greece is sucking on serious problems financially and has a very weak union culture... as does the UK (now). Germany is a powerhouse and has strong unions. Switzerland works very, very well and has few unions... It's just not that simple.

I'm a young guy and I heard many times from my parents that they were working hard for my future. But in the end, they couldn't afford it and I worked my backside off from 17 years old until today. I have never received 1 dollar from my parents, the government... anyone during the years since. I am proudly self-made & living in a big, expensive home. I think there are may like me in the world today, but today’s world is not a fair world. The fact is that the system is rigged and the corporations ran off with the national soul. It's sad and I personally feel for and back the people occupying Wall Street. Think I care if a Goldman Sacs employee can't get in his building due to an unemployed guy just trying to get his voice heard. Nope.

Soul