I'd be willing to stay awake for six figures, while actually putting the backhoe to use....

Where else but America can you earn that kind of cash for being a laborer, albieght a "skilled laborer?

Legalized crooks.

Man, I would be willing to nap for half that much money. They should hire me and save.

Unions have simply become a labor monopoly and suffer the same problems monopolies do. They've become the same socialist structure most education systems have with tenure....rules and policies put in polace to hide and cater to the incompetent.

It is not restricted to just unions. It seems, at least here, that city, county and state employees have the same attitude. There was a water main break around the corner from my business last year that closed one of the exit roads (there were only two). I saw a crew come each day, drop off an "end loader" and operator and the operator sat in the loader all day reading a book.

After two days, I called the city and they sent a supervisor out. The hole in the street was fixed by noon of that day.

They make six figures a year? Geeze, I went into the wrong field with that silly college degree and stuff.

No unions is the answer? No right to due process if your boss, who was only promoted because he/she sucked up lies to diciplane you... No right to overtime pay .... no right to established breaks ( even to go to the bathroom) or meal time .... no right to pay increase ... Wal-Mart has no Union ...that is why our states subsidize their healthcare ....believe it or not where YOU work there are people who take advantage...do less than you for the same or great pay....do you believe that anyone without a college education deserves what they get? The disappearing middle class that MADE America was/is Union based... Where you work, do you have in writing due process...seniority...these are Union values....what is the ratio of pay between your CEO and you....are Unions corrupt at higher levels...absolutly...are the important at the basic level...absolutly ...by the way how much do you trust someone building your home making $8.00 an hour vs. $16.00 an hour ..

Drew, all those things are now established in law. The unions have essentially legislated themselves out of business.

Which is a lesson the so-called "civil rights" groups have learned, hence their unwillingness to support anything that might actually dismantle what remains of the racial divide in this country.

Drew, as someone who works for a union, I have to clue you in. The name of the game is "the least amount of work in the most amount of time". The winner has the utmost respect of his "brothers", and you want to know why? It creates jobs (in their minds).
And of the 14 people in my immeadiate area, only two would I personally hire, at less than half of what they make here.

I like this one, "what is the ratio of pay between your CEO". I'd would ask, what is the ratio of responsibility between the CEO and you. From my personal experience (20 years), the wider difference is the responsibility.