<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content='"MSHTML 4.71.1712.3"' name=GENERATOR> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>"In the biggest unionization victory in the private sector in two decades, about 19,000 reservation takers, gate agents and ticket sellers at United Airlines will become members of the International Association of Machinists, Federal officials announced yesterday." - today's New York Times. The campaign involved 16 reservation centers and 113 cities, which made it unusual in its scope and logistics.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Are these folks among the "knowledge workers" everyone's talking about?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Also in the paper it's reported that people think the economy contracted by about 1% in the second quarter, mainly because of the Asian bug and GM strike. The official report will be made on July 31st.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>They're also saying it's a one-shot deal. If it's not though, we have higher unionization plus economic contraction which, as everyone knows, equals fun fun fun.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>