I've changed my mind about minimum wage (or saw the light)

[Scout26]

Organized labor is responsible for the 40 hour work week, weekends off, and even health care from employers.  

Mmmmm, no.

Henry Ford instituted the 40 work week and weekends off long before the UAW (or AFL/CIO).  (Same reason he created "The $5/Day Wage", so his employees could afford his product.  Prior to him cars were for the wealthy.  Henry Ford, Evil Capitalist that he was, was much like Steve Jobs.)

Health Care (Actually Health Insurance) came about near the end of WWII as the labor market tightened up, the Fed.Gov was under pressure to hold labor costs down and keep wartime production flowing.  Those workers not in uniform were suddenly starting to "Job Hop" and demand higher wages.  In order to stop it, and keep the labor costs of wartime contracts low, the Fed.gov came up with Employer Health Insurance.  Companies, could offer this benefit to their employees (giving them "a raise") without increasing contract labor costs, Companies could write off the cost on their taxes (making it a net zero cost to them), and the Fed.gov avoid production issues.  Everyone wins, until fast forward 60 some odd years, and like New York's WWI induced Rent Control, the solution continued on long after the problem had been solved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_the_United_States#The_rise_of_employer-sponsored_coverage  

[Balog]

Getting health insurance primarily through your employer is a horrible thing, and if the unions were actually responsible for it that'd be a very black mark against them.

[gunsmith]

Imagine, there was once a time when you could hire someone for whatever you mutually agreed to, pay them in cash (or barter), and never have to worry about reporting it to the government and taking out taxes and $hit.

It's easy if you try. 

some one has been following me

[RoadKingLarry]

I work for a unionized business. There are good and bad with the union that "represents" me. I've seen several instances in which the worked would have gotten royal screwing and probably terminated, mostly because their supervisor was a rectum, if not for the union. I've also seen too many employees that are a waste of floor space kept on the job because of the union.

On one side of the coin if a person is doing the same job/job title they get the same pay as anyone else doing the same job. The flip side of that is that they get the same pay even if they suck out loud at the job.

The politics of the union also tend to stink pretty bad. One of the last times I was at the union Hall was when Kerry was running for Prez. I was offered a Kerry campaign shirt. I politely declined with no political commentary or reason, just a "no thanks". The young lady that offered me the shirt absolutely came unhinged. I'm pretty sure that if a union VP hadn't stepped between us she would have assualted me because I didn't want a Kerry t-shirt.

[Levant]

You should have taken the shirt to keep it off the streets... and used it for gun cleaning patches.

Getting health insurance primarily through your employer is a horrible thing, and if the unions were actually responsible for it that'd be a very black mark against them.

You're right that employers are not the place to get it.  Although I have great insurance from a great employer, many folks are finding out that mandatory employer insurance means they'll be put on part time.  More unintended consequences but I just can't imagine how they are unexpected even if truly unintended.