Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060330/ap_on_re_us/philly_unions_urinals;_ylt=Auxf3Kl.c5Oc4GHGVo1SG9sEtbAF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Years ago I used a "waterless urinal" while on vacation. Since then, anytime I was around a building in progress, I have tried to get them to use these in the construction - always to no avail.

In Philadelphia though, they're building a new hi-rise office building and had planned to make it a "green building" which among other things, meant using these waterless urinals. Great idea - not only save money, but save water and be good to the environment - who could have a problem with that?

The unions, that's who. The idiot plumbers union in Philly is going ape over this because they won't be able to install all those water lines - probably miles of them when it's all added up - a regular urinal would require. Who would have thought when unions started early 20th century that they would get to a point where they would be thwarting legitimate building and progress. I hate unions, have I said they yet?

Follow up:

Here in Motown, the unions do similarly stupid things - they have "work rules" that forbid person X from doing anything outside of tightly designed parameters. And you know what, it's "these people" who complain about jobs going overseas, to Canada and to Mexico. Do you want to know why these jobs are disappearing? Because of the stupid and anti-business practices of unions.

Let's look at Northwest Airlines - they're basically out of business, having successfully and terminally busted the pilot, stewardess and mechanic's unions over the past year. At NWA each person has a very specific job to do and can not, by law, do anything else. At, say, Southwest Airlines, which is thriving, everyone can and will do anything to keep the planes in the air. A pilot will sweep the passenger cabin and help load luggage into the cargo compartment. A mechanic will help a gate agent, a flight attendant will hold a flashlight for the mechanic, etc.

I believe this country was built on the backs of the union worker. It is the union worker who put structure and fairness into the workplace in the early and mid-20th century and made America strong and won us both WWII and the Cold War. But I believe it is also the union who is leading to the demise of the American blue-collar worker. The union itself is responsible for off-shore manufacturing - they are what drove manufacturers to look elsewhere for workers.

I believe business would have been happy paying fair wages for fair output, but the unions made it impossible to run a company here in the states. Watch the news this weekend - we have hundreds of thousands of Mexicans dying to get into this country to work while at the same time we have union people, such as this one in Philly, refusing to do the job they were contracted and will be paid fairly to do. Hey Philly union - get off the job and let the Mexicans do it!

Links:

• Technorati Search: Philadelphia Waterless Urinal
• Skyline Online: Potty Policy Protest
• Blue Crab Blvd: Standing in the Way of Progress
• Phyllist: It's not easy being green
• Rosenblog: Luddite Plumbers Unions Versus Flushless Urinals