Actually, Dickey, I am not villifying you. Disagreement is not the same as vilification.

Of course Union companies are less profitable than non union companies. Non union companies, in the interest of increased profitability, make their employees pay if they want decent health care (in the States) as opposed to a bare bones, cover nothing but major illness, type plans. Non union companies don't provide pension plans, instead opting for 401K's which are really just savings plans for the employees. They try and make you think that these are your pension, while in reality they are just you saving your own money with no corresponding increase. In short, it is just cost shifting to you. Non union companies also pay less on the paycheck. Another reason Union companies are less profitable is because of the safety and work rules which are implemented by the collective bargaining process which makes for safer workplaces. I know you think that safety in the workplace and ergonomic standards should take second place to profits, but pardon me for disagreeing.

The point here, Dickey, as Amos initially pointed out, is that profitability is but one measure of success. If you want to see what profitability over safety does, visit the plants across the borders in Mexico. You know, the ones with no environmental controls, the ones where they dump chemicals in the groundwater to the point that the rate of children being born with only part of a brain is much higher.

The fact of the matter is that being less profitable does not mean that the company isn't profitable. But in this case what it does mean is that increased profitability comes straight out of the pockets of the workers and their families; it means it comes at the expense of more workers being injured; it comes at the expense of workers who can't afford to take their kids to the Doctor because the deductibles are so high on their plans, if they have a plan at all.

There was a time when an employer would keep a plant open because they felt a sense of obligation to the workers. They would do this as long as they didn't lose money. Nowadays these corporate bastards will shut a plant down, not because it isn't profitable, but because it isn't profitable enough.

So, Dickey, I am not vilifying you. I don't even know you. But your words do convict you. And they show you as unable or unwilling to look beyond the world of cliche'd responses and demogogic example. These are the self same cliches that management has been planting out their for years.

Mick