Labor Strikes Are Akin to Mutiny - Think About That, It's True

Not long ago, I was talking to a staunch Democrat, and I often tease him, and tell him he is a socialist. You may think I'm half kidding, but I tell it to his face, because he is, and he is very much for organized labor and collective bargaining as well. As a former business owner, and franchisor it has always been my contention that labor unions when they go on strike; well it is very similar to mutiny on the high seas. And in that regard, I would submit to you that it is dishonest, disingenuous, and it is nothing less than reneging on one's word.

There is absolutely no honor in that, and it is highly unfortunate that an employer who was good enough to give someone a job, and came to an agreement during the hiring process where the individual promises to work hard, and help the company, in trade for a steady paycheck - will be find that employee joining with other workers, and demanding more money, merely because the company can afford it. A ship owner might be able to pay more to each sailor, but those sailors agreed in advance to work for a certain amount, a deal is a deal. In many regards, when labor unions attack the companies they work for, it's much like a virus, or a bacterial infection in the human biosystem.

The labor unions say that they will basically shut down the organism or company if they don't get their way, so in essence they have hijacked the body or Corporation. After all, what's the difference between mutiny on the high seas and taking over a ship which is on a direct path to its destination, and a labor union which is willing to destroy a company, the quarterly profits, and shareholders equity if they don't get what they want immediately? There's no difference, however we are led to believe by unions and their propaganda that what they are doing is for the people? It's not.

Do you realize that when unions demand more money, those employees cause the prices of the goods and services that that company produces to go up? Therefore, you and I all have to pay more, and therefore we have less money in our pockets. Thus, not only is the labor union stealing from the company, and reneging on the original promise, but they are also stealing or taking away money from all of us who don't work union.

Consider this if you will if everyone worked union, there would just be incredible inflation, until the economy reached an equilibrium, and then everyone would work at the same rate, and therefore everyone would have less. Don't kid yourself, the unions are not of the people, they are greedy, and consider their self interests above all else, and that includes the company, the profits of the Corporation, all the shareholders that own the company, and everyone that buys the products and services, that would be you when I. If you support a union which threatens to go on strike and shut down a company, you are supporting mutiny.

Philosophically speaking there is no difference, and this is not up for debate. If unions are allowed to have collective bargaining and run cartels across various industries, and organize against various companies within the industry, then eventually they take over the entire industry. Why do you think your car cost so much? And why is it that the United States taxpayer had to bail out the auto industry? It's all about unions, it wasn't about anything else. And it is highly unfortunate that our politicians lied to us, and that the unions have so much political clout that they always get theirs first, and they leave us with the crumbs.

If you support the unions, you do not support the people. What about all of us out here in the real world? If the unions want to take that ship off course, it will never reach its destination, and therefore no one will be served, except those sailors who stole the ship. What is someone or some group called that steals a ship? Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new highly provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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French Strikes, Protests Dwindle As Pension Law Voted - Wall Street Journal

PARIS (Dow Jones)--Anti-government industrial action and protests continued to diminish Friday after President Nicolas Sarkozy's contentious pension reform was voted into law.

"We have the satisfaction of having accomplished our duty" on pension reform, Dominique Paille, a spokesman for Sarkozy's conservative UMP party told French television.

The pension reform cleared parliamentary hurdles Wednesday but will be delayed a week or two as the opposition Socialist party, as expected, appeals to the country's constitutional court which for its part is expected to dismiss the appeal.

Sarkozy has "by and large won the pensions battle," Douglas Webber, a political science professor at ...

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France Asks Airlines to Cut Flights Ahead of Strikes - New York Times

PARIS — As confrontation mounted over a contentious plan to reform the retirement system, the French civil aviation authority said on Monday it was asking airlines to cut flights into French airports by up to 50 percent on Tuesday because of possible strikes by personnel.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, meanwhile, said strikes at refineries and blockades at fuel depots had forced the authorities to begin drawing on France’s 30-day strategic fuel reserves.

The developments intensified a mood of gathering crisis with labor unions calling for national stoppages on Tuesday as the Senate prepares to finalize a package of reforms to the retirement system proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy and already approved by the lower National Assembly. The reforms, supposed to help wrest France from the economic doldrums gripping many parts of Europe, would increase the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62.

The civil aviation authority said France was asking airline operators to reduce flights into Orly airport outside Paris by 50 percent and by 30 percent at all other airports, raising the strong possibility that transport disruption on the rail network and highways will spread further to the skies.

A small number of flights scheduled to leave from Paris airports on Monday were also delayed or canceled after a surprise strike by aircraft refuelers.

A spokeswoman for Air France said at least two long-haul flights from Paris — to Seattle and Mumbai — had had been forced to take off with insufficient fuel, necessitating refueling stops en route. Airlines flying into French airports on Monday were being advised to carry sufficient fuel for their return journeys, according to Eurocontrol, the agency in Brussels charged with coordinating European air traffic management.

The announcement by the civil aviation authority came as high school students clashed with police and protesters blocked two main highways. The protests are seen as entering a critical phase with neither the government nor the labor unions prepared to back down and little sign of compromise.

On Monday, oil industry workers used blazing tires to prevent access to a refinery east of Paris, resisting management efforts to reopen it.

Motorists joined lines at service stations running low on fuel because of strikes by workers at France’s 12 refineries and blockades at some of the country’s 200 fuel depots. The government said only two percent of the country’s 13,200 service stations had actually run dry, but a spokeswoman for Exxon Mobil told Reuters: “The situation is critical.” Other estimates put the number of gas stations running out of some or all types of fuel at 10 to 15 percent.

Fearful that the pumps would run dry, many motorists scrambled to fill up while they could, contributing to the pressure on supplies particularly of the diesel fuel powering many French cars.

Add Van Bohemen, the head of emergency policy division at the International Energy Agency, said emergency supplies of fuel had been made available at depots because refineries were strike-bound. “The question is how to get it to the pumps,” he said in a telephone interview. “Some depots are blocked but there’s a lot of panic-buying going among the French people.”

With 98 days of oil stocks on hand, he said, “It’s a matter of logistics. It’s not really a matter of shortages.”

On highways near Lille in the north and Lyon in the south, truckers and protesters snarled traffic by what are called “snail” operations, slowing their vehicles to walking pace.

Christian Estrosi, the industry minister, said the authorities would take “the necessary measures” to secure access to fuel depots. “We respect the right to strike, not the right to put up blockades,” he said, according to Bloomberg News.

He also said France had stocks of refined products that would be adequate to guarantee supplies “for many more weeks,” Bloomberg said.

In the Paris suburb of Nanterre, riot police fired tear gas at some 300 high-school protesters who had set fire to a car, wrecked bus stops and hurled rocks, witnesses said. The authorities said disturbances had been reported Monday from 261 of the country’s 4,300 high schools — slightly less than in earlier unrest on Friday.

The French railway authority said only half of the country’s high-speed trains would run on Monday as the test of wills hardened. Labor unions called their first strike over the pensions issue on Sept. 7. Some commuter trains were harder hit, along with the Paris-Brussels high-speed, canceled because of a separate strike in Belgium. The Paris-London Eurostar was running normally.

Despite the disruption, a survey by a French newspaper, Le Parisien, on Monday showed public support for the strikes running at 52 percent, with an additional 19 percent of respondents expressing sympathy for the strikers.

Nicola Clark and Scott Sayare contributed reporting.

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