Labor Issues

In today's Post-Dispatch, Ron Silverman gives his opinion about what is good and bad about St. Louis:

"I think our labor relations in St. Louis are headed the wrong way, and I saw it in the grocery strike. ... We just have one of the most extraordinarily difficult problems here because the cost of construction is so high. I am for people making a living, because if they make a good living, they are able to grow the economy. But we don't have the rental rates and sales to support some of the high cost of our construction... We have to continue to work with labor to get them to understand that it's a constraint on our growth... I'd like to see mixed crews. There shouldn't be any mandatory requirement to have organized labor do your project. "


I agree wholeheartedly. There was a time when unions did a lot to prtoect the rights of the employees. Now, they just mooch money and drive the cost of everything through the roof for us all.