My dad was IBEW for 40 years. It had it’s ups and downs, but overall it was definitely a net benefit for him. ESPECIALLY now that he’s retired. Short term, he could have likely made more in a few of the years being non-union, long term, he/we consistently lived fairly comfortably and has a solid retirement plan.

I agree with a lot of your article, and I think it makes complete sense in a fixed labor market. The biggest argument against it is that with globalization, we are definitely not in a fixed labor market. Once a company hits a certain labor price point, they’ll likely be pushed to produce overseas (not feasible in…

I’m from across the river from Wheeling... it’s not a suburb of Pittsburgh. Don’t know anyone that calls it that. Your friend is weird.