I've been trying to avoid political topics. I have generally been unsuccessful.
I think I've mentioned unions before, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, I'm extremely pro-union. Boiled down to a nutshell, my basic belief is that the long struggle of organized labor is responsible for ending all sorts of very bad things- slave wages, dreadfully unsafe conditions, unbearably long hours, etc. etc. And the long, slow end of organized labor has pretty much correlated to a long, slow decline back into all of the above conditions.
People I speak with mostly seem to think I'm ridiculous for believing the end of unions will mean sinking back into the same conditions once described so colorfully by Upton Sinclair. I say "Of course it will lead to that. It already is leading to that. Duh!" Sure, conditions aren't nearly so dreadful at the moment. But the peak has already been reached and workers are definitely heading back down the hill.
And it's amazing how fast the fall may come once a little speed is built up.
Why wouldn't it lead to that? Because government regulation will prevent it? Without unions, who is going to make sure government regulations are enforced? Or make sure these regulations even stay on the books?

I've just been thinking about that a lot the last few days because of the stuff in Wisconsin. I'm especially galled by the argument that union workers have nothing to complain about because "they make more than me, they pay a lower percentage of their health care than me, they have it better than me..."
Well duh! again. Why is that an argument against unions? It sounds to me to be more of argument to get your ass into a union.