The company has already extended buyout offers to its entire United States unionized work force to reduce their ranks by another 20,000 jobs.
In addition, the combination of a well-paid, unionized work force and a large number of retired steelworkers to support means the labor costs for American steel makers are among the highest in the world.
But the companies that transport 70,000 special education and preschool pupils say that it would drive up costs by forcing them to hire a new, more expensive unionized work force that earns more than many of the companies' present drivers and matrons, and thus create a divisive labor environment.
The guild's critics say the divisiveness undermines the American acting profession at a time when the forces threatening unionized work forces everywhere -- globalization, mergers and cheap foreign labor -- are roiling the entertainment industry, too.
Mr. Walker said that in restricting collective bargaining rights for government workers, save those in public safety, he was confronting a reality facing virtually all state governments with aging, unionized work forces: "We can't sustain our budgets unless we make some reasonable changes".
Airlines are one of the most heavily unionized industries in the country, and Mr. Johnson has had severe run-ins with his unionized work force at BET.
This pressure came from increases in market competition within and between countries, the rapid rate of technological progress, the changing nature of the work force, shifts in jobs from highly unionized large manufacturing firms and industries to smaller, newer firms and service industries, and, in some countries, the election of governments less supportive of unions.
After the Goldwater defeat of 1964, conservatism was a dirty word and most Americans wanted to be liberals, especially working people, who were highly unionized.
Yet today, the right-to-work law being discussed exempts the two most highly unionized professions -- police officers and firefighters -- which are heavily dominated by men.
That's true even for non-union workers, who tend to benefit when a highly unionized workforce raises standards for everyone.
