I once saw a two-page ad on the inside front cover of Newsweek magazine (that’s prime advertising real estate, the inside front cover) for the Chevy Malibu.  The tag line of the ad was something close to “Chevy: The Best Car Made In America”.

In the teeeeeny, teeeeeny fine print at the bottom of the ad it said this and that, and this: “Assembled in Mexico from parts made in the United States and other countries.”

It could well be that, say, the left door handle is the only part of “the best car made in America” that’s actually made in America.  But it’s only a slogan; it doesn’t actually have to be true.

[Me, I have a Japanese car, a Toyota — which is, actually made (at least assembled) in America.  Mine was born in Kentucky.]

P.S.  Am I the only one who’s so much of a geek that when he sees the phrase “unionized workers”, it takes him a while to realize that they’re not talking about workers who’ve had their ions neutralized?

Well, my Trek bicycle (the frame anyway) was made in Whitewater, Wisconsin, but many of the components were made in China (Shimano derailleurs, for instance).  There is a little American flag on it, from the factory, but so far no one in Austria has given me any grief about it.

Yes, Barry, you probably are the only one who saw “unionized” as “un-ionized”.  Do you also think of ions that have sold their charge when you see “corruption”?

I hadn’t thought of that before, but now I will every time I see the phrase from here forward.

I think I would miss unions more than I hate them, if only because behind their irrational zero-sum-gamesmanship and pathological hatred of anything non-union, there’s still enough of a core of truth as to what they stand for (united labor in the face of managerial exploitation) that they remain of some value.

But, man, I do want to slap some of them silly sometimes.

(Spoken as a former teacher’s union member, back in the day, as well as someone whose wife ends up in a lot of meetings with both Union and Management)

LOL Barry…

If companies didn’t treat their workers as an expendable commodity, and if we had tougher labor laws, there would be no need for unions. And I wouldn’t really mis them. UAW deserves some blame for how badly American car companies perform.

I think I’ve said before that I’m not entirely anti-union in that I see in history where there was a need for them and they provided a very valuable service at the time, but more often than not these days it seems they cause as many problems as they solve. I’m not ready to say they’ve outlived their purpose, but I’m not entirely convinced they’re as necessary as they once were.

My only direct involvement with a union was when I worked for the Renaissance Faire in California.  The Faire was originally conceived as a fundraiser for the listener-sponsored radio station KPFK, but after the first year (1963) Ron and Phyllis Patterson, the inventors, ran it as a business for profit.  It became wildly popular, and deservedly so: there was nothing else like it in those heady first years- a whole world of freaks and adventures, a parallel universe unlike anything else in shopping-mall America.

In any case, the Pattersons made the most of it financially: more than half the workers were young starry-eyed volunteers, the only relatively well-paid workers being the real stars (actors portraying Queen Elizabeth and Co.) and the bouncers who patrolled the borders to keep people from sneaking in.  We peons- dancers and musicians and jugglers- were paid little and often late, and our contracts were informal and nonbinding.

When we decided to unionize, the Pattersons fought tooth and nail and fired people left and right.  But finally we got contracts and pay raises.  What has happened since then I don’t know- I played my last Faire in 1974.

I agree with ***Dave about the value of unions: united labor in the face of managerial exploitation.  But unions are not immune to the corruption power brings, as we can see.

When we decided to unionize, the Pattersons fought tooth and nail and fired people left and right.

I wonder if that’s the real-world inspiration for the episode of King Of The Hill where Peggy winds up unionizing the “wenches” at the renaissance fair?

It must be pretty nice to sit where you are and not have to worry about being injured or killed on the job.  I have the best job I have ever had and I owe it to my Union.  The things that bother you about Unions bother me too but if they were outlawed my job would be less safe the very next day.  They have not outlived thier usefullness.  They fight to keep what we have gained in the face of coporations who think of you and me as a number and an expense.

The thing that annoys me most about unions is the thing that annoys me most about politics- the dogma of left and right.  While I would probably be most identified as on the left, the habit the Left has of defending the indefensible seems to me to be part of the reason the Right has done so well over the last 20 years, dragging politics to the right because it seems so successful.  During some national negotiations to which we were getting updates, I opined I was surprised that the Official Side were still arguing, as they could easily appear to give in, the circumvent later. I was roundly slapped down by the Branch President for being so negative and suggesting we shouldn’t protect the Health and Safety of our members.  I never actually said that, but merely being seen to suggest a possibility of defeat seemed to be the crime.

A Week later O/S did exactly as I predicted- we can’t/won’t force you to ‘X’, but people who wish to work in that particular area will be required accept it as the T&C;.

And this is the UK Civil Service.

Unions are monopolies. Labor as far as I am concerned is a commodity even though our government does not recognize it as such. They keep the supply of workers where they want it in order to keep their wages where they want them. I worked with some people in the UK mail system (royal mail) and they would strike on a Friday back up the mail system then come in on sat or sun for overtime....so who loses there?...the public Unions only benefit Unions at societies expense...I hate them. I would get a “checkbox: free markets Yes “ bumper sticker if I didn’t think some dumbass would kill me.

People are only commodities.

It’s thinking like that that means we need unions.  Look at all those commodities in the far east scrapping together a living, who are effectively serfs.

I saw that same dumb bumper sticker on an Impala when I was Christmas shopping (driving my Infiniti) I laughed and told my wife that Impalas are built in Canada and our SUV was built in Kentucky. Who’s car is foreign again? I always base it on who’s table had bread on it? Nameplate means nothing as they are all GLOBAL companies nowdays…