[richlevy]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

Unions can also make an unnecessary tangle out of things that could resolve themselves quickly. For example, my dad was giving a presentation at some conference and accidentally kicked the plug of the overhead projector out of the socket (pre-powerpoint days, of course). He went to plug it back in and was nearly dogpiled. Turns out a union man had to do the replugging.

Ah yes, the madness that was the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Your dad may not have been in PA, but I guess these issues could occur at other convention centers. What really has to happen is that the companies and the unions need to understand that if the company goes under, everybody starves. In cases where the company is a Convention Center that nobody believes the state would have the balls to shut down, this is hard to impress.

In the end, though, at least as far as the PA Convention Center, an agreement was reached that would allow mere mortals to plug things in.

IMO, the value of a company should be the jobs it creates in the community as well as its value to shareholders and customers. Unfortunately, too much of the money given to companies ends up with top management and shareholders. The purpose of unions is to force the company to deal with it's employees, which I think is beneficial to all parties.