The Circle of Union Life

There was a time in America when unions played a vital role in protecting the health and welfare of workers.  In a day when there was no OSHA, Workers Compensation Insurance, or workplace safety rules, unions were critical to improving conditions and compensation to the working class.

Those days are gone.  Today unions exist for one reason - to collect union dues which are then laundered through the union to Dem politicians who in turn vote for increased salary and benefits for union members who then pay dues to the union...repeat until bankrupt.

John Fund discusses the threats to this "circle of union life" from Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin:

Labor historian Fred Siegel offers further reasons why unions are manning the barricades. Mr. Walker would require that public-employee unions be recertified annually by a majority vote of all their members, not merely by a majority of those that choose to cast ballots. In addition, he would end the government’s practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks. For Wisconsin teachers, union dues total between $700 and $1,000 a year.

“Ending dues deductions breaks the political cycle in which government collects dues, gives them to the unions, who then use the dues to back their favorite candidates and also lobby for bigger government and more pay and benefits,” Mr. Siegel told me. After New York City’s Transport Workers Union lost the right to automatic dues collection in 2007 following an illegal strike, its income fell by more than 35% as many members stopped ponying up.

We could give every teacher in Wisconsin a big raise today if they could just stop paying dues.

I guess unions are fine if you don't have enough confidence in yourself to market your own skills to the world and make as much money as you can.   With unions there is no benefit for being better at your job than any other union member.  The slug will get the same pay and benefits as the star.

No thanks.