[TheRealThing]

Let's assume that all you say is true. Employers, those who are risking their own capital, should have the choice of hiring union or non-union workers. If the union workers really are more competent, the employers should have the right to weigh that fact against the major increase in cost from hiring union workers. The employer should have the right to weigh the options and to succeed or fail on his/her own.

All true, and is in fact the case in the modern world. My position is that where union workmen once commanded ultimate respect because of their unquestioned skill and committment, gradually over time saw that respect errode due to a variety of causes. Complacency being the number one shortfall, for much the same reasons that America now finds itself in the position of seeing the gap that seperated us from the rest of the world, shrink to a very bridgeable span. The battle rages in fact, on a number of national and global fronts. Moral, financial, knowledge/educational, science and defense. We live in the age marked by the increase of knowledge. It takes no prisoners and as you well know, knowledge is power. Will America prevail? At any rate, clients have the right, to use union or non-union labor. And, no matter what union bosses tell their membership, to the victor will go the spoils. In this case natural selection favors the strongest.