Angry Citizen!, Bluejacket (3/19/2009 8:46:27 AM)

Ahhh, if farmers would only unionize, strike and starve the country, we could manipulate congress to do whatever we wanted...

A Concerned Citizen, (3/19/2009 9:02:54 AM)

Unions work for decent pay, conditions, and pensions for all their members. In what way is getting some of those things for their membership the same as an enormous personal bonus for a small number of people?

Democrat, Tulsa County (3/19/2009 9:07:58 AM)

Dick:

That's a reach. Obama has chosen to join-in the chorus of false indignation over the AIG bonus payments because it would be political suicide to remain silent over the issue. You need to prove that his purpose is to deflect attention from the mutual support that he and organized labor have given each other. You come across as being an anti-union conservative with an agenda.

If you paid attention to Obama's speech and Q&A appearance last night, you might have gained a better understanding of his current strategy of joining all of the other politicians and the American public in expressing outrage at corporate greed. I believe that he sees his choice as being the best way of moving us beyond our short-term anger (through venting) so that we may get back on course to ending the current economic mess that he inherited from the Bush administration.

Blaming unions for our current troubles is not helpful.

Hijinx, (3/19/2009 9:36:55 AM)

The order ENCOURAGES federal agencies to have construction contractors and subcontractors enter project labor agreements. Those agreements require contractors to NEGOITATE with union officials, recognize union wages and benefits and generally abide by collective-bargaining agreements.

Nothing in stone that gives Unions exclusivity.

This repeals one of about a dozen orders Bush signed into law and assures that union labor gets a fair shot and workers get a fair wage union or not.

"practice will drive up various project costs by 40 to 50 percent."

This is a disingenuous assertion. Union wages may be 50% more than minimum wage but will not drive up the cost 50% due to the fact that non-union companies will have similar bids as their counterparts because of Gov, building standards. Except they will not have any benefits that they will have to cover. All this does is assure that Corp CEOS of Halliburton and Brown & Root and the like wont pad their pockets further off the backs of exploited workers.

Loophole, (3/19/2009 9:57:32 AM)

Demo, what else besides unions and their outrageous pay and benefits put the American carmakers in the shape they're in?

A Concerned Citizen, (3/19/2009 9:59:17 AM)

Poorly designed cars, little awareness of the fossil fuel problem, and a health care system that puts the burden on employers.

Democrat, Tulsa County (3/19/2009 10:11:49 AM)

Loophole:

How about the decision by American automakers to make cars that few consumers want to buy?

How about the decision to avoid health care reform with the result that we have the most expensive health care in the world? The result is that health care costs add %1,200 to $1,500 to the price of an American-made car.

Before the "Reagan Era," top corporate executives made about 40 times the amount of money earned by their non-management employees. Since Reagan, union membership has greatly declined and top executives now make more than 400 times the pay of their non-management employees. How do YOU explain that Unions are the major source of our nation's economic troubles?????? This point is tied to your question because you assume that union workers have been too greedy for their own good. Their companies' corporate executives make the gains in union workers' pay and benefits over the past 3 decades appear to be quite reasonable in comparison.

I have just answered your question by making three main points. I'm betting that you will disappear from this discussion in typical "conservative" fashion.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I make pointed challenges like the one made in my previous sentence to ensure the continuation of a debate that needs to happen. Don't chicken out, Loophole. Come back and let's have a discussion of these three points in answer to your question.

redbeard, Stillwater (3/19/2009 11:43:59 AM)

Let's bust all the unions.

That way,American workers can be paid poverty wages and have no benefits like health insurance,vacations,overtime etc.

Ron B, (3/19/2009 4:13:40 PM)

Recession is when your neighbor loses his job,
Depression is when you lose your job,
Recovery is when Obama loses HIS job!

longhorn sam, westex (3/19/2009 6:17:43 PM)

I worked for a union company back in the 80's until the company went belly up. Some workers that I worked with were always crying to the union rep. about something all the time, in the past 15 years about 60 union trucking companies have closed. I work for an LTL [less than truckload] company and I have noticed that LTL companies that are not union and hope not to be, their drivers still make the same amount of money as union LTL companies. Everybody wants to blame Bush for corporations going over seas, but unions are also to blame.