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Originally Posted by Bigerik
Great post, Dave!
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Steel was everything in the Mahoning Valley. Nearly everyone worked for "Big Steel" or some feeder industry. (Still is, albeit to a much lesser degree.)
The worst part of the collapse took place while I was in the service..1982-86. I went home to an absolutely devastated community. (Many people there still can't figure out what in the hell folks are talking about when they go on about how great the '80s were. That entire decade was nothing but shit, to them.)
Anyhow, for a decade and a half I was a bit obssessed with it. That, and the utter absurdities taking place at our second largest employer---GM. Even though I had moved down here to VA, I subscribed to hometown newspapers, researched the valleys history and businesses. The obssession has faded quite a bit in the last few years, but I am watching the steel industry there---------For the first time since the 1970s------it's growing.
So, yeah. I've been following this stuff for a long, long time.
Look guys, I still support labor, because I still care about where the current trends are taking our workers. It's friggin' sad, what's going on, IMHO. But, I'm not blind, nor stupid. I see the excesses, the corruption and the mistakes.
But, I also hear it, every day....The constant bashing and blaming of labor for literally everything. If your kid is failing, it's because his teacher is a loser and her union protects her.........Really? Ever think that, maybe, the kid might actually.....well, you know where I'm going. I recently overheard two young men in their twenties going on about how "........unions go on strike, because the company took their free sodas away! Yeah, no shit man, free sodas....It's like grow the f**k up..they should lose their jobs...dumbasses." What were those morons babbling about? I was a union member once, years ago----I don't remember any free sodas, much less going on strike over anything that trivial.....
So, I get in my truck and tune to the EIB network..........Uh, Huh..There it is.
Dave