I'll cut President Obama some slack; after all he's only been in office 10 days.

[rant] But he's making a very serious mistake cozing up too close to labor unions in America.

Trade unionists have something in common with business executives: both
groups tend to be greedy and tend to push their greed even when economic
times are bad, when both groups should be tightening their belts.

You want a history lesson?

America was smack deep in the Deep Depression in 1933 when FDR
introduced many commendable pieces of New Deal legislation...
As a result? Millions were put back to work in America for a few years, then...

Then the wheels came off the New Deal economic program in America,
and America's unemployment levels started to soar AGAIN...right upto WW2.

Part of the blame can be laid at the feet of American trade unions, starting
around 1935 when they started to become increasingly greedy and militant,
pushing demands for unreasonably high wages, causing walkouts, strikes, lockouts, and even leading to a near shut down of the auto industry in 1937 when there were violent strikes
against the Detroit auto giants.

FDR's predecessor, Herbert Hoover is partly to blame as well!
President Hoover could have brought together the business leaders of America
during the years 1930-1932 and asked them to keep as many employees as possible on their payrolls by offering them reduced work hours and days in place of pink slips.
President Hoover should have also instituted TAX CUTS.

Now back to Obama.

President Obama would be very foolish if [hypothetically] he were to give America's
trade unions freer rein in this economy, even doing something like abolishing
the Taft-Hartley Act.
I hope he wouldn't do something as foolish as that, but I'm starting to have my doubts.