1 Your father is a wise man.

2 My experience has been that there are two types of union leaders. The Marxists and the greedy. The Marxists believe that corporations are evil and must be destroyed. Therefore the leader will try to punish the company with very restrictive work rules, uncompetitive wages and benefits. These Marxists leaders will file grievances on everything and call strikes at a drop of the hat. The Marxists leader does not care about the workers their only goal is to end capitalism. They will do this by driving companies out of business one company at a time. The greedy leader is only interested in union dues income. Thus they push for restrictive work rules so the company has to hire as many dues paying union workers as possible. The greedy leader usually does not care about increases in wages. Instead of wages increases, they want more for their funds. If the leaders are looting the health insurance fund, they will try to get all negotiated increases be put into the health insurance fund. If they are hitting the pension fund, they will insist on increases in pension contributions. A greedy leader will never call a strike. That would mean no dues income and a large outflow of funds.

3 I know of only two type of union leaders, Good ones, and living ones.

4 One could go on at length, but dad is right.

5 "I don't belong to any organized political party, I'm a Democrat." Will Rogers, Jr.

6 "Well, it's sundown on the union and what's made in the U.S.A.. Sure was a good idea 'til greed got in the wa-a-a-a-a-y..!" --Bob Dylan, 1981

7 Unions were a response to horrid working conditions, and outright exploitation. Yes, they became more associated with greed and protectionism, though we are finding our jobs outsourced now and are becoming 'contract workers', instead of having careers. The Marxist side was extant primarily in the 70s and 80s within some European Unions. The Fall of the Wall pretty much spelled doom for that philosophy. The union coin has two sides, and one was shown in today's post.

8 Annika, The corollary is silly. It is no more than a bunch of words that seem to fit together in a fashion that resembles a relationship, but in truth none exists. Just an excuse to show ones feathers. “I’m a Union hater and a US of Fucking A lover” The "USA" whatever that may mean, and it does legitimately mean many things to many people, does not have a relationship with its constituents that is as simplistic as that of an employer with its employees. Nor does the Democratic Party speak with such a clear voice. All and all it is a brainless highly partisan thing to say. Something that speaks volumes about the prejudices and education of the speaker, but little about anything else- Good bar talk in some trailer park outside Provo but not something you my dear would proffer up in class. Unless you like getting your ass kicked, that is. (Your intellectual ass, I know your other one has a Sig too close by. So slap that bottle down on the bar and lets get to some serious talk about that coverup down in Roswell.