... a condemnation of labor unions, Archie, for it was not intended as such.

By far, the most important part of what I said was: "... and that business could operate with minimal governmental interference."

The most important statement in your post was: "Regulated monopolies and protected businesses that receive government assurances of profits, or rate increases, or interest rates, no matter how much waste they generate through bad management should be held to the same measuring stick that you insist for American Labor."

I couldn't agree more (and, BTW, my comments weren't directed only at "American Labor"; they apply to EVERYONE, professionals, entrepreneurs, management, white collar workers, blue collar workers, manual laborers, etc.).

Despite rampant abuses in certain unions (there was a time that the Teamsters were as crooked as the Mafia), on balance the labor movement in this country has done more good than harm for the average working man.

I come from a long line of working people (I was the first in my family to attend college and the first to become a "professional"), so I understand the lower to middle class perspective fairly well.

As I said in my other post, I know nothing about the current dispute in Atlantic City, so have no opinion whether the 10 cent offer is fair or not.

I'd be willing to bet, however, that at least some of those workers have already received raises of various kinds during the existence of the current contract (either merit raises or time-based incremental increases) and would therefore start the new contract at a higher level, when compared with the start of the previous contract, than would be indicated by a simple 10 cent per hour raise. If I'm wrong about that and every worker in the involved union(s) has gone the entire length of the current contract without any pay raise, then 10 cents is probably not enough.

----- jim o\-S