IKEA Feels the Union Heat

Famed Swedish furniture manufacturer IKEA finds itself embroiled in a labor dispute at its only American manufacturing plant in Danville, Va.  IKEA--famous for furniture that looks good in any recent college graduate's apartment--but which spontaneously decomposes at the five year point--brought the plant to Danville--a part of Virginia that was suffering economically in a big way, and brought several hundred jobs to a region that really needed them.

Never to let a good deed go undone, the local union heavies have organized because lo and behold, the starting hourly wage at the plant is less than the starting wage paid at plants in Sweden.  Why this is relevant--I can't say--but then again, when you're trying to form a union you say just about anything.

IKEA seems to be handling this with aplomb--but they'll learn.  And at some point, they'll pull up stakes and leave, and the people of Danville can go back to welfare poverty.