Unions Have Lost Their Way

From Our Friends at "Chuck on the Right Side":
Once again, our illustrious Professor Watson, has written a column in the Sun-Sentinel (Mar.13) that is blatantly one-sided (that is, opinion from an extreme leftist point of view). He has a right to spew his leftist rhetoric, and we have a right to refute it as we do in our blog, "Chuck on the Right Side".


Dear Professor Robert Watson:

My dear professor, your argument is outdated and the outrages you listed, no longer exist to any extent, except maybe by the violence perpetrated by the unions themselves.

There is no doubt that unions were necessary the first half of the 20th century. Many greedy employers did take advantage of their workers and unions did bring some semblance of fairness to workers being exploited. Pay and working conditions improved greatly for workers.

But, in today's enlightened climate about wage and working conditions, unions have been more of a hindrance to the workers than a benefit, as they so loudly proclaim. As the worker progressed over the later half of the 20th century in gaining more pay and better working conditions, the heavy hand of the unions contributed to the demise of many industries due to unrealistic demands and by forced coercion that they used to extract pay and fringe benefits that could not be sustained in the marketplace. Around the middle of the 20th century we were #1 in auto production, #1 in steel-making, #1 in mining, and #1 in the manufacturing of products, some that are no longer produced in this country. Today, we have lost most of our advantage in the world's economic picture. At one point during the 20th century, over 20% of the private workforce were members of unions, but today, union membership has dwindled to below 10% with most union members now employed by the government, both federal and state. In other words, the unions have priced themselves out of the market place and caused a massive loss of jobs, along with contributing to spiraling deficits in both federal and state budgets.

Most of the onerous working conditions that unions were successful in changing 100 years ago are no longer a major problem. The rank and file of union workers are now the unwilling "serfs", not of their employers, but are beholden to their union bosses who seem unilaterally focused on raising wages and benefits, in hopes of maintaining their cushy jobs, and in trying to coerce companies and businesses in recognizing the union as their collective bargaining agent.

Just look around at our 50 states and see which one's are economic basket cases and which one's are mostly thriving. The states with most of their workers unionized are the one's losing population, and amassing huge budget deficits as compared with the states with "Right to Work" laws who have been able to thrive even in this extended recession climate. The unions have priced themselves out of the market place and still they continue to try to put an extreme economic burden upon the private businesses, the engine that our country needs to create jobs, and have turned their efforts to unionize public sector employment, which now makes up the majority of unionized workers. Look what is happening in the various states and to the governors, both Republican and Democrat, running them. Public opinion has turned against the avaricious union bosses and they have been fighting back ferociously, so far unsuccessfully.

Unions have lost their way and people (taxpayers) are fed up with their greed and outrageous demands - it seems that the "chickens are coming home to roost" as the tide has turned against them, but as with most self-serving autocrats, they can't see the forest for the trees.

Sincerely,

Chuck On The Right Side