[TheRealVille]

Unions have use coercion, threats of violence, and actual violence to gain monopoly positions with employers. A person who does not believe in paying dues to help socialists like Obama into office often is given no choice but to join a union or look for work elsewhere. Where is such a person's right to earn a living? That is one of the most basic human rights and it is a right that most unions undermine through collective bargaining, often to the detriment of their own members.

BTW, I support the right of unions to enter into mutually beneficial agreements with employers, provided the agreements are entered into by all parties voluntarily and without the threat of violence. Too often, that is not the case. I learned that on my very first job as a UMWA miner in the 1970s. Armed roving pickets wearing ski masks and engaged in illegal wildcat strikes prevented me from working on average every other day in Martin County. Don't bother telling me that the threat of violence is not a tool that big labor employs in organizing because I know better.

Monopolies of markets and labor both infringe upon peoples' right to earn the best living that they can. Liberals see the dangers of companies practising monopolistic tactics but turn a blind eye to the unions doing the same.

Here is another question for you RV - an easy one for anybody who truly believes in equal rights for everyone. Do you support federal hate crimes legislation? Should a person guilty of attacking a member of a minority or a gay person pay a higher price than for attacking you or me? In other words, should criminals be punished based on their thoughts or their actions?

My union never uses violence, never has. If any union person doesn't want to pay dues, has every opportunity to go to work in a non union shop, they have 89% of the jobs to our 11%. They will have no trouble finding a non union shop to work in if they have the skills. No violence is not a tool anymore, maybe decades ago, but not now, you don't know better. I support the same punishment for anybody doing violence to anybody, gay or straight.