"Wayne Lundberg" wrote in message
...
The Machinists Union at Boeing are on strike. Boeing is the most
significant
resource for good jobs in the United States that mostly provide solid
exports and thus great act in balancing the trade deficit. When over
18,000
assemblers (they dare call themselves machinists!) are idled, the trickle
down effect will be devastating because all
these workers do is to assemble pieces that have been made in almost every
machine shop across the nation.

Boeing of Portland is just one big machine shop with probably the largest
heat treating facility on the west coast. I have been through the plant
about
20+ years ago. Although most are machine operators not real machinist's,
they do cut metal however.

We do have a real problem with health insurance in this country. So many
things
have caused the rates to go up. It's almost $900 a month on the west coast
for
Health insurance. We have been getting short changed on our raises because
of the rising cost of health insurance.