Heartbeat of America? What a crockasheet....

[94touring]

Just thought about the air traffic controllers in the 80s when they went on strike and Reagan fired them all! 

[MiniDave]

Yes, that was a scary time to be in the air, whether pilot or passenger!

However, the reasons were different then...they wanted to go on strike but doing so would put the country at extreme risk, unlike if a manufacturing facility shut down for a few days. Reagan told them not to do it, and when they did he acted - and I say good for him. (not to be cowed by a union)

[94touring]

He put a lifetime ban on them for being rehired too.

[jeff10049]

My Father drove truck on and off and hauled a lot of parts out of Laredo Texas to the f150 assembly plant in Michigan the parts were coming from Johnson controls in Mexico. he had fork truck drivers pass out in the trailer they were unloading they were so drunk at 10:30 in the am.  That plant now unloads with automated fork trucks based on line needs.



Another union story different union.

He was driving truck back when the Teamsters tried to organize trucking it was a bad deal they would sabotage non-union trucks park their trucks in fuel stations and refuse to move they almost shut down the industry for a time but non-union truckers refused to budge there are people buried in the desert over this.

They even pressured/bribed truck dealers to not sell new trucks to non-union companies it was bad for everyone even the truckers they did not want or need representation.

The Teamsters also got in to the haz waste hauling and collected the disposal fee when they picked up the 1000 plus gallon tankers of haz waste only about 20% made it to the recycler the rest got dumped in the desert the truckers were paid off to do this and the Teamsters kept the fees they charged to have it recycled they also threated companies that were not recycling there waste the classic protection racket they were and still are organized crime.