Biotech Values

[microcapfun]

O/T ... an extreme view of unions.

Unions in private industry have been a victim of their own success. They are like a parasite which makes its hosts unable to compete and thereby both the hosts and the parasite lose 'market share' to companies which manage not to be unionized.
http://www.data360.org/temp/dsg1387_495_600.jpg
But there is still a dangerous reservoir of the infection - not in private industry, but in areas where there is no competition. This reservoir is found in the federal, state and local government, where unions are king and inefficiency is a way of life. No competition means the hosts and the parasite live on forever ... happily - like an overfed pig with ticks ....

>>Bankruptcy is not unthinkable for Detroit’s former king. The immediate cause of G.M.’s distress, of course, is the surging price of oil, which has put a chill on the sale of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and trucks. The company’s failure to invest early enough in hybrids is another culprit. Years of poor car design is another.

But none of G.M.’s management miscues was so damaging to its long-term fate as the rich pensions and health care that robbed General Motors of its financial flexibility and, ultimately, of its cash.

General Motors established its pension in the “treaty of Detroit,” the five-year contract that it signed with the United Automobile Workers in 1950 that also provided health insurance and other benefits for the company’s workers.<<

micro