SAD: "(Detroit )turns blind eye to demise of unions it spawned"

[Bluebear]

Maybe Michigan -- with its accelerating brain drain and declining job-base -- is becoming the Deep South of the North. This state, which played a major role in spawning the nation's labor union movement, is now becoming a cutting-edge laboratory for the demise of unions.

What we built here is now getting busted here.

Even that phrase -- union-busting -- that once carried the full-force charge of an epithet has become a mild curse or even, in some circles, a term of approval. ...

Ten years after the Detroit newspaper strike, when such hard-boiled tactics still carried the capacity to shock, Northwest Airlines is adopting the pattern without the social heat the newspapers took a decade ago. Nobody's shocked now. The pattern is set: Hire replacement workers. Hunker down for the long haul. And keep flying, no matter what.

Travelers, with tickets in hand, nod and smile and in some cases wish the workers good luck. And then keep walking....

http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0508/25/B01-292683.htm

[wli]

1. "going on strike? big deal, a Mexican will replace you" n/t

[Bluebear]

2. Sad time for labor. nt