the good ol' U.S. of A., by non-union workers in the South. The liberal bay area?

any basis for Democrats to whine about "Reagan Democrats".

You guys got your revenge, and then some.

with Carter and airline deregulation, but did they really think that Reagan would give them a better shot?

That was in 1980.

Reagan destroyed the Air Traffic Controllers union for gosh sakes, and in 1984 the teamsters endorsed him?

I could understand not endorsing anyone, but seriously endorsing Reagan for what?

...for pointing out that it was Saint Ronnie who broke PATCO, not Jimmy Carter. As for an explanation of the 1984 endorsement, I can only surmise that it was a misguided attempt by the leadership to demonstrate that the union vote could not be taken for granted (emphasis on misguided). I also have to grudgingly admit that there are a lot of very conservative idiots in our union, but I doubt that had much influence on the leadership's decision.

Democratic party taking the labor vote for granted, and that was happening before reagan.

There is no question in my mind that Democrats must address labors needs, and not just to distinguish itself from republicans, but because it is the right thing to do

No vote should be taken for granted, and as you mentioned the TPP, NAFTA, etc. is hurting the country and taking labor for granted. I don't think it is because of revenge as much as it is due to lobbyists

which put the U.S. at a disadvantage. My point was I don't think the motivation of the Democrats was to hurt labor, though they certainly knew it would, and did, but rather it was the influence of big money from certain corporations and ideologues to maximize their profits at the expense of the American worker.

I know it is a fine point, but Congress, including some Democrats effectively take bribes, which actually in a way worse than "taking revenge against labor", because it means they don't stand for anything, and don't really have convictions.

A perfect example is what is happening right now with the Iran nuclear deal. Senators are being bribed heavily to oppose this deal by various lobbying groups. Hopefully, there are enough Democrats that cannot be bribed, and will allow any rejection of the deal to be vetoed.

The same thing goes with labor issues, except it is much more difficult now because of the President's support of the TPP, which the republicans were all for, so the Democrats who would vote against it, wouldn't have enough votes. Maybe my pessimism is wrong, but until we elect representative who are working for the people, it is going to be a long road

imported strike-breakers.

It was called the Airline Deregulation Act

deregulation bill which caused 80 percent of the unionized trucking industry to go under...losing 300,000 union job over a period ten years.

through Congress. If you say Kennedy, ok

worked harder to help labor, but that was more in the past then in the present. Hopefully, that will turn around to be more receptive to labor, I hope

endorsed numbnuts, Reagan. Feds cleaned up the union in the late eighties and nineties. It's a lot different now. You have a few bad apples here and there, like any other organization.

Instead of the shit-mobiles they used to make.

Check out This American Life's recent re-broacast of their NUMMI episode.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/nummi-2015