A couple of observations from someone who has worked within and with Unions.

Years ago I was offered a job by a large construction union. I had never been a member, didn't know anything about their union or them. Turned it down. They offered it again: "Show up at 8 AM and back up at 5 PM - I don't care what you do in between. We'll give you a car, expense account and twice whatever the State is paying you." I had some specific skills they wanted and was the only person in this area they ever hired, rather than elect. Eventually I became the person the Executive Secretary-Treasurer sent to cover problems the local unions were either exacerbating or couldn't resolve.

Years later when I left them I went to work for management, for a union company which paid over union scale. I negotiated the Master Labor Agreement and helped with work rules, etc.

First, people don't create unions, employers create unions. Employees don't want to belong, look to the employer much as many people look to their family. When an employer is perceived as treating people unfairly over time, folks will go toward a Union. It's a response to the employer, and not the first choice.

Second, the impact of unions is felt far, far beyond their membership. I would bet that one of our leading Conservatives has health insurance either directly as the result of union negotiation or because the employer of a family member is afraid to not provide it in order to avoid union activity with their people.

Third, union abuses have been the subject of Conservative attack for years. Reader's Digest has been incessant, and management runs newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, etc. Management determines the content. I used to have a newspaper which had headlines on a $30 million Teamster pension loan gone bad. On the next to the back page was a story about 7 companies including GE, Westinghouse and Siemens having been convicted in a $476 million price-fixing scheme.

Fourth, the Union leadership below the national level us usually very, very poor. The people who are elected usually get elected by bitching about management and their predecessor for a while. They promise more than they can deliver, and "beat up" management every chance they get. These are people who have never had anyone listen to them before, have never been paid to sit on their butts. They are in heaven, and will protect that domain as fiercely as they can. And in doing so they cause problems which they claim to their membership they are the only solution, that they bravely stand between the membership and a cruel, mean fate.

I have not seen abuses in labor on the order of Enron or WorldCom. I have not seen abuses such as those which brought us to this present crisis. Nothing like them. Yet "capitalism" isn't under attack.

Unions are a big part of what has made America great. They offered the chance to learn skills, earn a living wage, and send their kids to school. They created the American middle class. I've learned that if a job can't pay a living wage it shouldn't get done. That if a person can't earn enough with 40 hrs/week of their time to raise a family there is something wrong with that society. There have been far, far more affluent societies in the past, and they were communal. They had far, far less than we in tangibles, but had to "work" about 25 hours a week and could spend the rest of the time playing.

This country will be as great as is it's middle class, and the Conservative efforts to destroy them have contributed to the headlong rush of the US into "banana republic" status.

Arf
Arf