On the jobs front, figures emerging from the automotive industry have been surprising.

Locally, German-based Volkswagen received job applications so fast during a three-week period that some suggest 100,000 or more might be filed for fewer than 2,000 jobs at its Chattanooga plant. The plant is set to begin operations in 2011.

Meanwhile, up in Michigan, more than 70 percent of Ford's union workers said no when voting recently whether to make contract concessions to get the company in line with two other Detroit-based manufacturers, General Motors and Chrysler, which recently emerged from bankruptcy.

Ford, troubled for years but now on its way to recovery, is trying to establish a profitable future based on worker wages equitable with its largest domestic competitors.

The company's union workers, however, see a organization that did not take federal bailout money and a company that just surprised analysts by recording $1 billion in profits for a single quarter. They see no need to make concessions similar to those made by workers at GM and Chrysler just before those companies entered bankruptcy earlier this year.

In my view, the union is not seeing the big picture.

The automotive world is bigger than Detroit now. Manufacturing jobs have moved South in the past two decades, providing an economic benefit to workers and an affordable, profitable structure for companies.

This is no attack against organized labor. Unions such as the United Auto Workers made a difference in America in the 20th century, helping workers provide for their families and creating years of excellent and profitable manufacturing. I'm pulling for them every step of the way into the 21st century.

But it's a new world in manufacturing, with increased need for efficiency not only on the global front but also on the domestic level. Good jobs are in high demand. Those holding good jobs should be doing all they can to keep them.