Caterpillar, which makes mostly construction equipment and exports 60 percent of its output, is arguably not in the same industry as Deere, which concentrates on farm implements and sells mostly domestically. Breaking the pattern is far more important to the company's future flexibility than any specific dispute over wages and benefits. Fortunately for Caterpillar workers, they are not the same as either workers off the street or Deere employees. They are highly skilled both in their trades and in their specific knowledge of Caterpillar's production. And they are well paid.
American unions face a choice.
On it depends their future. Or they can reinvent unions as organizations that primarily serve workers rather than fight management. Public-employee unions have it easy at the bargaining table. Already, the NEA has displaced the Teamsters as the nation's largest union. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees is number four, surpassing the autoworkers.