Factory Jobs Disappear; Workers Lack Options [NYTimes]

On Monday 15 September 2003 13:12, Al Globus wrote:
(...)
> Unions, like insurance, are a necessary evil. Industries where the
> bosses haven't rapaciously exploited the workers are, generally, not
> unionized. However, when management literally kills workers for
> profit, works must (and have) organized to protect themselves. I once
> saw a bumper sticker: "Do you like weekends -- thank the unions". 12
> hour days, 6 days a week were once standard -- even for 10 yr old
> children. These conditions -- and worse -- are still common in some
> parts of the world, but in Europe and the US unions changed that.
(...)

I was immersed in an exceptional 70-work-hours-week with no spare time for
emailing (perhaps a union could solve that? :-) and so just now I'll apply
what I call "soft moderation": what exactly is the relation between
unions+decaying industry and space colonization?

But perhaps this thread is calling for a TangoMan-type question: would unions
naturally develop in a space faring economy? Would they directly mimic
Earthling unions or would space bring the need for new models? (Hmmm, I think
that TangoMan is better when raising this kind of questioning... Mine are a
rather poor pastiche...)

Lucio Coelho