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Bobl
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Username: Bobl

Post Number: 600
Registered: 07-2008
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 1:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Purpleheart: Thank you for your service to the country, and for explaining the language of Durr, Excello, Rupp, Hautra, Fanuc, etc.
I respect your service as a marine, and your capable work maintaining the high tech equipment in the factories. It disturbs me that it has become fashionable for so called conservatives to criticize those whose work produces wealth.

(Message edited by Bobl on March 04, 2009)
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321brian
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Username: 321brian

Post Number: 616
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 1:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

no, no, no the "I am better than you" attitude is the one I hate.

Isn't that what Purpleheart is saying about himself to me?

I have no illusions that someone else can't do my job(s). Most anyone can. Like most anyone can do most jobs.

Sorry, I didn't know a Marine wasn't a soldier. That is a job I would not last at for sure.

Yes, I am bitter that college didn't pay off. I worked hard and went to school in hopes of getting a better job when I graduated.

My generation was told that college was the ticket to a better life. "Work hard. Got to school and it will all pay off." I heard that a lot in high school.

Now I wish I hadn't even went to college. Sure, it was fun but I don't think I am any better off because I did.

It has nothing to do with buying what I want. I want to be able to save what I want.
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Glowblue
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Username: Glowblue

Post Number: 177
Registered: 09-2008
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 1:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^So the truth comes out. You're jealous of autoworkers because they have decent jobs with decent pay and benefits, and you don't. Maybe if you and your coworkers unionized, you too could enjoy a better job, but you're too much of a jackass to even consider it. Too bad.
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Tkshreve
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Username: Tkshreve

Post Number: 771
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 2:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes..... unionize:

not because the work environment is unsafe...

not because you are treated unfairly and denied overtime, though you work 55+ hours a week....

not because your job is unprotected in the event of injury....



But because you deserve more money. That's what a union will do for you. It will hold the castle hostage, demand ransom, take a cut, and raise prices on you and I.


When will the unions finally finish what they were designed to do?
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Reddog289
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Username: Reddog289

Post Number: 957
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 3:26 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

While being a Union worker,I get envious of what the remaining BIG 3 Autoworkers make.Which is more than I make,Yet I see unionized employees as targets for this "New global economy" deal which sucks.Cheap tools from Harbor Freight, Wal Mart ETC, Poisoned cat food, baby formula,even cheap cars and motorcycles which undercut the Japanese. The Chinese people have been strung a line of BS they follow it. They need to wake up also.Before I was a union member and even after I realized that the workers of the Big 3 spent lots of cash round here.IF the 3 went away this area will look like a war zone.So much for saving stuff like Slumpy,The GRANDE, AND OTHER SUCH PLACES.Now days people are just happy to have a job or food in their belly. I can be thankful for that. I would love to have crystal ball to see how this all plays out.
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321brian
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Username: 321brian

Post Number: 617
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 8:34 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Tkshreve,

Thanks.

FYI glowblue, I work with over a dozen union employees and none of them are worth anything near what we pay them. I have never worked with a bunch of overpaid, underskilled, lazy, sense of entitlement having workers in my life.

There is only one of them that I would consider more skilled than me at a task and that is only one job he may do 10 times a year.

They are the prototypical/stereotypical union employees in my opinion and I think you may also fit the bill.

Your true colors show when you run out of what little original thoughts you may have or were supplied with through pro union propaganda and resort to call in people jackasses in the end.



"So much for saving stuff like Slumpy,The GRANDE, AND OTHER SUCH PLACES"

Uh, ya. aren't those places gone?
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Registeredguest
Member
Username: Registeredguest

Post Number: 153
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 8:34 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I quite reading after the use of the term Messiah when mentioning our President - I made the assumption that it was the same stale conservative arguments about responsibility and entitlement and whatnot. Blah.
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Sstashmoo
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Username: Sstashmoo

Post Number: 3389
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 8:41 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Quote: "Now I wish I hadn't even went to college. Sure, it was fun but I don't think I am any better off because I did."

Let's look at that sentence, and particularly "Sure, it was fun". There's your problem. Six years of partying doesn't automatically equate into a lifetime of financial security. Don't they teach that in college anymore?

These companies are wising up, finally.
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321brian
Member
Username: 321brian

Post Number: 618
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 9:03 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ya, six years and two degrees later.

Thanks for telling me what my problem is.

Your problem is assuming you know what I did in college.

Ya, they are wising up. Renegotiating union contracts is a great start.
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Pffft
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Username: Pffft

Post Number: 1251
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 9:22 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Now I wish I hadn't even went to college.
Two degrees and you'd flunk my high school grammar class. It's "Now I wish I hadn't even gone to college."

Too many worthless college degrees out there, obviously.
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Firstandten
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Username: Firstandten

Post Number: 743
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 9:34 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

One thing that doesn't get mentioned and I wish Mr. Knox had addressed it in his letter. I think the term messiah in referring to our president was disrespectful and had no place in a supposed letter to a GM executive, but I digress.

The wasteful spending of the supplier base to get business from the big 3 is something that has been going on for years. This is never mentioned when folks start banging on the union.

One never talks about the golf outings and lunches and dinners, strip club outings, gifts, sporting events in the private suites and on ,and on. And thats just for the procurement buyers and managers. What the big 3 executives were getting I can only guess.

This reflects on the price of parts that the big 3 purchases from suppliers which of course reflects on the price of the car.

Things got so bad that GM had to put a zero tolerance policy in place for its purchasing people so they cannot accept anything of value from a supplier. As far as the other two companies they have a slightly less restrictive policy in regards to its suppliers.

The cost of parts from outside suppliers are a huge expense in the cost of the auto and there are (or use to be) thousands of tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers trying to get business, it makes me wonder how fair are we being when we just focus on the unions as the root of the problem.
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Glowblue
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Username: Glowblue

Post Number: 178
Registered: 09-2008
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 9:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

Yes..... unionize:

not because the work environment is unsafe...

not because you are treated unfairly and denied overtime, though you work 55+ hours a week....

not because your job is unprotected in the event of injury....



Believe it or not, there are many non-union workers in America today who must face these very conditions!

quote:

But because you deserve more money. That's what a union will do for you. It will hold the castle hostage, demand ransom, take a cut, and raise prices on you and I.



Who's to say they don't deserve more money? Over the past several decades, executive pay has risen tremendously, while pay for average workers has stagnated when accounting for inflation. Why do dittoheads such as yourself never bring up that American executives get paid far more compared to their workers than executives in other, more unionized countries, while American companies are not generally more successful?
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Stosh
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Username: Stosh

Post Number: 77
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 9:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Why do people insist on trotting out the traitor Knox's crap every few weeks? It's not that good of a piece to begin with. You want to read the discussions, they are in the archives.
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Pffft
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Username: Pffft

Post Number: 1252
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 10:02 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Glowblue, you hit on something.
Republicans have done such a snow job on lower middle class people who resent union workers, that they actually don't see out of bounds executive compensation as a problem at all.
The fact that there is an unprecedented gap between workers and upper management, that's been lost thanks to the Republican fog machine.
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Sstashmoo
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Username: Sstashmoo

Post Number: 3391
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 10:04 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The letter is a joke and one huge contradiction. This guy is telling everyone how to run their business and he's a low-life opportunistic importer, circumnavigating our whole domestic supply chain system. He says "the dream is over". Him and his ilk know this to be fact and have made sure of it.
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321brian
Member
Username: 321brian

Post Number: 620
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 10:24 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pffft,

Crap you got me.

That was something I didn't learn in elementary school. Too late to fix it by the time I got to college.

I never could diagram sentences.
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_sj_
Member
Username: _sj_

Post Number: 1711
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 10:33 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

Only two companies made money last year, McDonald's and Wal-Mart (Newsweek March 2009) the rest of us are in a pickle, and if you want to see the American Automobile Industry go under I might think that you are the communist wishing the over throw of the USA, because without the big three you would have been speaking German or Japanese by now, what language do you speak anti-American?



Because no other American did anything to further the war effort. It was only the Big Three and their mass production of an inferior war machine that won the war. Not the millions who gave their lives or even the contributions from other countries. It was just all the Big Three. I am glad we cleared that up.

Your passion is off the charts, but your so called facts and truths are lacking.
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Islandman
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Username: Islandman

Post Number: 1990
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 10:54 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Weather i Agree or not This is Intresting... "

I stopped reading after this.

LEARN TO SPELL!!!
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Burnsie
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Username: Burnsie

Post Number: 1188
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Purpleheart wrote, "Only two companies made money last year, McDonald's and Wal-Mart..."

Huh? Do you really mean that only two companies in the whole country had profits last year? Or did you read the article wrong?

For starters, the company I work for (Nebraska Book Company) made profits. And thousands of other companies did, too.
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Pffft
Member
Username: Pffft

Post Number: 1254
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's not diagramming sentences, it's not knowing the difference between "gone" and "went."
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Novine
Member
Username: Novine

Post Number: 1183
Registered: 07-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 1:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"FYI glowblue, I work with over a dozen union employees and none of them are worth anything near what we pay them. I have never worked with a bunch of overpaid, underskilled, lazy, sense of entitlement having workers in my life. "

Here's a news flash for you, unless you go into business for yourself, you're going to run into people like this, union or no union. Most workers in the US are not unionized. Most companies that are struggling today didn't get there because of the unions. How about all of the overcompensated idiots on Wall Street and in the banks who have capsized our financial system? No unions there.

You have a chip on your shoulder about the unions and you think that the people making more money than you don't deserve to make it. If you're worth so much, go get a job somewhere where they'll pay you what you think you're worth. Otherwise, save the whining and crying for your wife or dog or your buddies over a beer.
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Purpleheart
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Username: Purpleheart

Post Number: 66
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 1:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

[quote]"McDonald's remains one of the few happy stories on Wall Street right now. Along with Wal-Mart, it was the only Dow component to end 2008 with a year-on-year gain"[end quote- February 05, 2009 02:57 PM ET | Kirk Shinkle | US News and World Report]

About the big 3 and WW2, I didn't say they did it by themselves, but rather said without their help (being a key player here) we would have lost, yes that is true! Manufacturing always has the military back in a time of war. Wars are won and lost on the backs of a manufacturing base. The US big 3 turned out so many supplies, weapons, air planes, tanks, bombs, bullets; you name it the big three made it. And it was the most awesome display of manufacturing ability in whole history of the world, bar none.

And in the words of the immortal, "You don't win a war by dying for your country; You win a war by making the other SOB die for his country." General Patton

So unless you fall out stacked more than I my friend you better save the military argument for your ladies garden club.

P.S.- the winner of the 2008 US Department of Defense Patriot Award was ...... GENERAL MOTORS
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321brian
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Username: 321brian

Post Number: 623
Registered: 02-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 2:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Novine,

I'm just telling you what I see.

Yes there are crappy workers everywhere but the non-union ones are easier to fire. The union workers do just enough to keep their jobs.

Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I'm whining and crying.

Also, thanks for pulling out another pro-union piece of rhetoric by deflecting away from what union workers don't do and bring up what some other non-unionized industry (banks)does.

It's like arguing with a kid.

"But ---- did it too."
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Whaler
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Username: Whaler

Post Number: 163
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 3:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Islandman...I Thought I Got Rid of the Nuns years Ago ...Alas I guess Not...Sorry for the spelling error..I guess It was Thought I was trying to get going here...
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Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo

Post Number: 3393
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 3:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Quote: "I guess It was Thought I was trying to get going here..."

Save it. Some here are most concerned about spelling and punctuation. While they are telling you about your error, they make some of the most idiotic statements ever entered. Sentences that don't make any sense at all, logic that follows the same, or just leave out entire words. Seriously, if one wanted to, they could spend all day here making corrections. Psst, nobody cares.
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Purpleheart
Member
Username: Purpleheart

Post Number: 68
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 4:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

[quote]I Thought I Got Rid of the Nuns years Ago [end quote]

Nope they keep coming back, for me in my dreams er go; nightmares. But really they weren't that bad; besides smelling really funny I was more scared of the lay teachers. Mrs. Gilbert to be exact. She had a nasty habit of smacking you five times across the knuckles with her Boblo Boat Pencil (huge one at that) for every misspelled word.

Funny thing is I saw her again at my fund raiser. She said she saw it in the paper and remembered she taught me in 5th Grade at Our Lady of Good Council and came to the spaghetti dinner that was held in my honor.

So I guess she wasn't that bad, at least unarmed she was tolerable.
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Ferntruth
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Username: Ferntruth

Post Number: 763
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 5:03 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Psst, nobody cares"

Psst, clearly somebody does as the errors keep getting pointed out.
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_sj_
Member
Username: _sj_

Post Number: 1715
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 8:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

So unless you fall out stacked more than I my friend you better save the military argument for your ladies garden club.



Clubs like that only accept the romanticized fanboy revisionist history that you hold so dearly. You probably also believe that those products weren't inferior either.

quote:

P.S.- the winner of the 2008 US Department of Defense Patriot Award was ...... GENERAL MOTORS



So did US Bank along with other companies, what is your point?

(Message edited by _sj_ on March 04, 2009)
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Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo

Post Number: 3394
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 9:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Quote: "You probably also believe that those products weren't inferior either."

Our military machine had SOME things that were not as good, compared to the Germans only, but they were overshadowed by those that were far superior in every way, there were many. And of course, that badass demeanor and spit-in-the-eye toughness of the American soldier.

Anyone ever see a ww2 Japanese rifle? Looked like it was made with a sledge hammer and a chain saw. I don't know how they issued that to someone with a straight face.
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Purpleheart
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Username: Purpleheart

Post Number: 69
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 10:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I said "So unless you fall out stacked"

and sj replied, "Clubs like that only accept the romanticized fanboy revisionist history."

You don't have a clue what I said do you? Go away little boy and learn a few things before you return and talk with adults around here.

As for the Japanese industrial support you'll find several names that are familiar. Toyoda, alias Toyota (Toyoda Sewing Machines, no lie, that's where the old saying came from about buying a car made by a sewing machine company) made rifles, bayonets, and also made trucks with one head light... rofl.

Mitsubishi made aircraft as in the Japanese Zero. We won't go into how inferior they were made, only one system for everything so if something failed it was kamikaze time.

German's made the mauser rifle was good until the semi automatic and fully automatic were introduced. Also the metal in making them fell off dramatically towards the end of the war. Their automatic rifles and hand guns stood no chance to the superior American made products of that time in not only firepower but dependability.

Need I go on?
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Barnesfoto
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Username: Barnesfoto

Post Number: 3570
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 12:55 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Everything I needed to know about the U.S. autoworker I learned from one.
I read Rivethead."

Everything I needed to know about the afterlife I learned from one. I read "The Five People that you meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom"
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Reddog289
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Username: Reddog289

Post Number: 962
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 3:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Grande is still there from what I belive and my point is, If there isn't people working around here where is the $$ gonna come from to save the places that members of this forum wanna save?. 10yrs ago 2 of my best friends worked at Ford parts plants which got spun off to Visteon, then to ACH.They had new trucks, bought stuff for their homes, spent money on the town. My non -union Uncles did the same.Call me a Republican or Reagan democrat, But hey that laid of Union Autoworker ain't gonna be stopping at the local Bar to get a few brews so therefore the cook & barmaids get let go. As well as other stuff like home improvements.Home Depot, Lowes,and the Hardware stores, they suffer. Hell A ROLL OF DUCT TAPE GOES A LONG WAY..Alot of people on this thread talk about how things were so great in the 50's&60's in this area. Well that in my mind was that the Union and Non -Union workers co existed.Fed off one another so to speak. I do see faults in Unions, But my bigger fault that I see is greed,laziness and too much bitterness between the two sides.Enuff with that.

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