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Simply put Unions have become BIG BUSINESS, in the business of providing LABOUR. After WW2 they had a monopoly on industrialized labour in the world, so they could put their hands in the pocket of business. Business was making so much money they agreed..Then things started to change around the middle 60's with the rise of Germany (Europe), Japan and then Korea and Taiwan. Now the competition hs spread to Indonesia, India, China and Brazil.

Remember the VW Beetle, Datsun and Toyota's...all cheap transportation...

So instead of smelling the roses and seeing which way the wind was blowing they kept on keeping on as if nothing had changed...the American people went to sleep thinking everything was fine...with their credit card and easy monthly payments. Nobody dared to wake them..Well that little slumber all burst in the fall of 2008.

BTW American business did wake up in the mid 80's as that was when they cleaned out the dead wood and got lean and mean...except those with big Union contracts like GM.....