demand management would have to had maintained all aspects of clerical operations at the LA port facilities; for all eternity? Management did not relinquish 100% of its rights to seek cheaper and more efficient clerical services in areas other than its LA port facilities.

As early as the 80s many companies began moving their administrative services from large urban centers to the out-laying suburbs or across state lines. New York City has seen the migration of companies’ clerical departments from Manhattan to Long Island and New Jersey. The relocation of these operations has been undertaken to cut expensive real estate foot prints and to increase efficiency. Newer structures are designed and built to accommodate the advancements in technology. In different locations companies have opportunities to tap into underused and highly skilled clerical workers at a substantial savings. As would be expected smaller cities and communities vie for this “outsourced businesses” by conducting elaborate campaigns and offering millions of dollars in tax incentives. The movement of jobs and business between different parts of the country can only be described as good for the economic vitality of the U.S.

For years organized labor has prevented companies for participating in the natural flow of commerce and business between the expensive-inefficient and more cheaper-efficient locals. It is often the case that the relocation of services or operations does not impact jobs at the old location. This was the case when Boeing wanted to open an airline manufacturing plant in South Carolina. Though no jobs would have been affected in its Washington plants, the union representing the Seattle workers filed a labor relations complaint with the NLRB  trying to block the opening of the second Dreamliner plant in South Carolina. The acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon filed a formal unfair labor complaint against Boeing. The central allegation of the complaint focused on Boeing wanting to relocate the plant away from the contentious and ever striking Union. An economic decision to expand production or open a new plant in another location does not fall within any unfair labor prohibitions, even if one of the main reasons for doing so is the business costs incurred during prior strikes. On December 9, 2011 the NLRB dismissed its complaint against the airline manufacturer after the union had been given a sweeping contract extension. I assume that the attorneys at the NLRB finally realized that agency had not power to enact legislation. On April 27, 2012 the first Dreamliner rolled off the South Carolina assembly line. Due to the delay in opening the plant production of the aircraft is behind schedule which has caused delivery problems.

In my opinion the debate and controversy over outsourcing has little to do with real concerns about job security. Unions have invented the controversy in order for them to have a political agenda to push. The strike at the LA port complex supports this view. The striking clerical workers were not being negatively impacted by management’s alleged use of other labor resources. There was no actual labor dispute between the port management and the workers. The intent the strike appears to have been the establishment of the labor’s continued relevancy in an increasingly global and technologically based market. In its most basic terms; the clerical workers went on strike to flex labor’s political and economic muscles.

Over the years American unions have recklessly guided its members into becoming an overpaid, outdated and highly inefficient work force. Labor’s long standing goal that a worker should have a high paying and benefit rich job for life and the opportunity to pass this golden employment opportunity on to a very select group of people should have been reevaluated and retooled years ago. The unions have not done a good job in convincing the American public and, more specifically, the struggling or unemployed worker, why good jobs cannot be shared with them. The LA port strike lasted only a week in part because the Unions realized that there was not much public support for striking clerical workers who were making $100,000.00 and struck solely to prevent other less fortunate workers from sharing in their good fortune.

If unionized labor is going to be a relevant player in the events of this decade its leaders must adopt new goals and strategies that meet the challenges of a changing American economy and those presented by an American worker that lives in a highly polarized society.  It is just a matter of time before a greater number of locally elected representatives vote to make their states right to work jurisdictions. We must not under estimate the desire that Americans have to work and to feel useful. Any person or organization that prevents the free flow of new jobs to those who need them is going to be seen as the villain.