Labor Unions are at an all-time low in popularity. Why doesn’t the GOP have the guts to stand up to them?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/122744/Labor-Unions-Sharp-Slide-Public-Support.aspx
48% of Americans now approve of labor unions, according to Gallup’s latest poll. This is the fewest since Gallup began polling in the 1930s (when labor unions first became significant after they gained the backing of the federal government thanks to FDR’s Wagner Act).
Prior to this year, the lowest all-time support for union thugs was in 1979 and 1981.
Although unions are less popular across partisan lines, the biggest drop has been amongst the increasingly libertarian-leaning Independents.
Most people now understand what economists have long understood, that labor unions help their own workers at the expense of non-union workers. Unions, in order to prop up their own wages, must create an artificial scarcity of workers, which harms those whom the unions run out of the labor market (this is why labor unions have been so enthusiastic over the years in supporting minimum wage laws and restrictions on how much young people can work, even though union workers are paid well above minimum wage, as this takes away the threat of employers replacing union members with a greater number of unskilled workers; in South Africa, all-white unions were instrumental in bringing about apartheid to protect themselves against competition from black workers).
If the Republican Party wishes to win over the large number of Americans who want to get rid of union thuggery, they need only support repealing the federal laws that enable labor unions to operate. If the Wagner-Taft-Hartley Act were to be repealed (and all other federal labor legislation) and the status quo prior to FDR restored, the invisible hand of the free market will run these criminal cartels called unions out of business. To get rid of unions in the public sector, the GOP need only eliminate the public sector jobs (in the case of vital government services, the GOP should refuse to deal with the union when the contract expires, the union will go on strike, and then the union workers can be replaced with "scabs," permanently deunionizing the public sector as well).
Furthermore, the GOP stands to benefit politically from weakening labor unions. Unions tend to fund the Democratic Party and other leftist organizations. By reducing the amount of money that the Democrats have to air ads, the GOP would increase its own influence.
It is possible for a Republican majority backed up by a Republican president (as it seems increasingly likely that we will soon have) to end labor unions once and for all as a force in this country. Why don’t the Republicans have the courage to stand up to organized crime?
This administration is bringing many things to light most people were oblivious to. I see changes coming in the future away from socialist and fascist ideologies. America will possibly be what America was meant to be again.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Got a day off today? Thank a Union.
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September 20th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Because the union bosses all know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.
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September 20th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Well it is a little difficult right now with the trio from hell running Congress ! They are lucky to even get a bill to the floor ! It is refreshing to see how many people are finally waking up to the reality that unions have created the loss of many, many jobs with their greed. Democrats scream that the executives make big salaries , but tend to ignore that a man with virtually no responsibility other than maybe screwing in a screw or two is making 35 to 40 dollars an hour ! Yes there are a few at the top making lots of money but they also have the responsibility as well !
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September 20th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
For most Americans Labor Day is just a day off. It is a holiday to celebrate unions. For many in the U.S., I guess it will be like it is for an atheist on Christmas Day.
Union membership in the private sector is so low that we are unlikely to even think about it.
Union membership has grown a bit lately but primarily due to the growth of government. Less than 8 percent of private sector workers are unionized, compared to nearly 37 percent of government workers, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private sector workers can, in the American tradition, fend for themselves. Government meanwhile, in cooperation with unions, does nothing more that unreasonably drive up costs. google the "Prevailing Wage Act".
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bwlobo
http://townhall.com/columnists/JerryAgar/2009/09/07/labor_day_-_im_not_celebrating
September 20th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
The Republicans have been waging a war on unions for the past 30 years. During that time, real income for most Americans has stagnated or gone down, while the rich became super-rich. Benefits are rapidly disappearing, and average hours worked per year has gone up – in other words, the suckers who are too dumb to join unions are working harder than ever for less and less pay. Middle class and poor Republicans are idiots. The Republican Party cares only about the rich.
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September 20th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Unions are low because all the jobs that shipped overseas.
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September 20th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
This administration is bringing many things to light most people were oblivious to. I see changes coming in the future away from socialist and fascist ideologies. America will possibly be what America was meant to be again.
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September 20th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
it’s a bag of worms. i was a union member all of my working life and they have their faults. some workers are paid a lot more than they deserve. the union wants to gouge every penny they can out of the company. look at the auto industry whose union members got bout $75 per hour including some ridiculous perks. on the other hand if you had no unions then the company would want to pay them as little as possible. – where is the middle ground or is there one.
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September 20th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Unions did once upon a time serve a good purpose. Without unions we most likely would never had a minimum wage, vacations, 40hr work week, and many other benefits. However, as they have evolved, unions have outlived their usefulness. Ever increaseingly unions have become more militant. I must admit that I was a union member. I joined a union when I was 18yrs. old and like most young people in that period still respected and looked up to my elders. I accepted that any non union person was less than I and gave no thought to the fact that they were people just like me. Working to support their family. Time and time again, I knew non union worker who wanted to join our union. The leaders were only interested if their whole company went union. Even if all of the employees wanted to join the union, they were not accepted until their employer signed a union contract. Naturally, most of the companies they worked for were small and could not afford to pay the union benefits. So these employees, who had campaigned for union membership, were often left out in the cold with neither a union or non-union job. These practices is what has led to the demise of unions. It is an absolute shame that the leadership of these organizations still hold to 1950’s ideas and refuse to change. The result is many good paying union jobs are gone. Your question is flawed when you refer to unions as organized crime because, like any business, there are some wrong but there has been a lot of good. I could debate all day with you about the pros and cons of unionism but that is for another day.
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September 20th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
"Standing up to Unions" has been a staple for the GOP for years! But in a nation that allows people to form associations, you can’t seriously suggest banning them! If so, then I’ll invoke the same power to ban church congregations. They’re up to no good!
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