I do not belong to a union but I believe in them whole-heartedly. When, as the above post states, unions and companies work together, they do work well. If it had not been for the union when my father was an iron worker, we would not have had much of anything. Instead, we had insurance that covered everything and my father was well paid. In general, when a person is hired to work in a manufacturing plant and the workforce is organized, the workers are well-trained and therefore are capable of producing a superior product than a six-year-old kid named Zing-O-Ping somewhere in Asia. My father went to school for quite a few years before he became an apprentice and then a journeyman iron worker. If the workforce at Winchester would not bend and be willing to negotiate with the company in order to keep the plant up and running, then I think there was a fault with the union representation and their relationship with the company to work toward a common goal. I think they had a responsibility to the sportsmen and women of this country to insure this great old company remain solvent. LIke I said, I believe in unions but IF the reason for the demise of this company was over labor, that's more than a shame. It, to me, is criminal. And all this left-wing vs. right wing crap is the problem in this country today. No one wants to meet in the middle so the masses will eventually have to pay for this inability to compromise.
