[AT] Union Labor

[Grant Brians]

Ok, I've stayed out up to this point. First, a lot of very negative things 
have been said about American workers. I am a farmer, have no insurance 
(like most employed folks) and no certainty that my business might not fail. 
But this is true nowadays of nearly all workers in the US because big and 
medium size business no longer cares about the human capital that makes the 
money for them. Second, I have worked for companies ranging from 50 
employees to well over 130,000. Nearly all of them outsourced jobs to 
overseas. In most cases the companies now either no longer exist or a re 
shadows of their former selves and make less money than they did before. A 
part of this is due to competitive pressures, but mostly it is because of 
the attitude that only short term cost effectiveness is important.
    Third, I have worked for both nominally American and foreign owned 
companies. The biggest difference has been that the foreign owned companies 
protect their home country workers and don't protect their American workers, 
while the nominally American ones protect only the executives. Both lobby 
the state and federal governments to lower the requirements of worker 
protections of their American workers.
    Fourth, the US is the ONLY industrialized country without national 
health care and also the most expensive health care by every measure any 
economist has come up with. US health care is NOT better for the money 
either. The reason is not overpaid nurses or other typical personnel, but 
rather the structure of our system. Many people talk about how inefficient 
"Government" is. And yes there are many things it is very inefficient at. 
However health care management and Social Security are NOT areas this 
applies. The overhead level for Medicare and the California state-run 
Medical programs are less than 2% of  paid costs. LESS THAN 2%. The 
Privately run insurance companies add 25% or more in overhead! The most 
efficient private employer paid programs are in the 20% range.
    Fifth, due to item 4 (no national health care program), GM pays nearly 
$1300 in health care costs per car, Toyota on the other hand because they 
have a younger workforce and zero retiree cost pays under $300 in health 
care cost per car. But the workers at GM are not less healthy, just 
older.... Think about it.
    Sixth, lets get back to farming in the conversations. Does anyone have a 
cheap set of bull and pinion gears for an MF 390T?

        Grant Brians
        Hollister, California
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Danny Tabor" <dannytabor2000 at yahoo.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 7:18 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Union Labor


>      I'm not well versed with the inner workings of
> Unions but I've noticed hauling out of different
> cement mills. The mind-set of many of the Union
> laborers is that the company they work for is the bad
> guy. I'm not certain where this comes from and it
> seems not to be limited with union laborers. Is there
> no such thing as a "company man". I believe before a
> bigger, stronger work force can be established in the
> USA. American workers must change their attitudes
> towards the hand(s) that feed them. Being self
> employed I certainly can not be called a company man
> but I praise God there are those wealthier than I, who
> are willing to take the risk of investing their money
> so I can work today, tomorrow and years to come.
>
> Danny Tabor