| Labor Unions Déjà View |
The Wall Street Journal Friday, 01 Sept. 1995 Private Sector Unionism Weakens . . . By LEO TROY professor of economics at Rutgers University. “ The contest for the presidency of the AFL‑CIO promises to make Labor Day 1995 and its aftermath the most interesting in union history since the 1995 merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations.” “Thomas R. Donahue, former secretary-treasurer of the AFL‑CIO,” “is opposed by John J. Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, one of the AFL‑CIO’s largest affiliates.” A Transformation “The election of either candidate will mark a transformation in what the AFL‑CIO is— more public‑ and fewer private-sector union members— and what the federation does. Mr. Sweeney’s union is made up mostly of government workers.” “. . . The center of gravity is shifting toward workers from the public sector.” “Mr. Sweeney’s election” and “His public union background probably will encourage the National Education Association, with over two million members, to join the AFL‑CIO. Given its teacher constituency and ideology, the NEA’s affiliation would accentuate the re-orientation of the federation’s philosophy toward increased redistribution of the national income to government. Total governmental spending now accounts for about 45% of the national income.” “Irrespective of the eventual choice, however, neither candidate can resolve labor’s overriding problem— the decay of unionism in the private sector.” “When Mr. Sweeney’s supporters point to the enormous growth of the SEIU as evidence of his ‘know‑how’ in organizing, they neglect to mention the process— capturing large numbers of established public employee associations, ‘organizing the organized.’ Moreover, organizing even the unorganized in the government sector is hardly comparable to union organizing in the private labor market. Even if private sector&thinsp unions’ legendary leaders, such as John L. Lewis and&thinsp Walter Reuther, were&thinsp on the scene, they could not overcome the expanding power of international competition— the New Age of Adam Smith.” “The AFL‑CIO’s opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade shows that it understands the challenges of global competition. But it also reveals labor’s strategic response: a Luddite-like rejection of technological and market changes. Private sector unions have surrendered more than seven million members since peaking at 17 million a quarter century ago.” “Nor is private labor in the U.S. unique in these developments; it applies across countries. In contrast, government employee unionism currently stands at record levels in the U.S., both in the number enrolled (more than seven million, nearly equal to private union’s losses) and in market share, 39%. Internationally, government unionism is now the dominant wing of organized labor in virtually all major countries.” International competition “is responsible for the disparity between the two wings of organized labor: pervasive competition in private market activities and its limited impact in government operations.” Adverse Legislation The “Republican sweep in November 1994” “demolished labor’s expectations of pro-union changes in labor law. Instead, labor now faces adverse legislation, . . .” Competition is “propelling private unionism toward the twilight zone, . . . and public employee unionism’s demand for more government even as the body politic demands less.” Florida: Union Size Doubled! Lamar Alexander speech: International Competition Boeing’s Right to Flight Competition Is A Sin! “ Teachers unions are on the defensive these days.” “ Ninety percent of the kids ” in the U.S. go to public schools. “ What collective bargaining does in the public sphere is that it helps transform systems.” “ Markets Aren’t the Education Solution.” Compulsory Schooling is “ a Force to compel people to do good ”— In Doctrine Nation! Census Bureau report: in public schools— 157,114 fewer students. More than 137,000 additional teachers, principals, administrators, and support workers replaced those students ( 2008‑2009 school year). ScoolDaze.com “ Enforcement to do good was Repealed! Tennessee Transformation. ( Greg Johnson Articles ) The Wall Street Journal Friday, 01 Sept. 1995 . . . But the Strong-Arm Tactics Continue By ORRIN G. HATCH U.S. Senator, R., Utah “is a co-sponsor of the National Right to Work Act of 1995, which would repeal sections of federal labor law that impose the forced union dues system.” “In 1986, David Fitz, a 19-year employee of AT&T in Illinois, lost his job. He wasn’t laid off, and he wasn’t fired for incompetence. “ He was fired because he refused to pay union dues to the Communications workers of America to support its political agenda.” “He was forced to join the CWA, an organization whose political goals Mr. Fitz did not support.” Despite his offer to pay the share of the Union fees associated with collective bargaining, or “representation,” the CWA refused and demanded his firing. AT&T caved in, and the federal government upheld the firing.” “A union demanding membership dues or agency fees from workers so they can keep their jobs is not unlike a gangster strong-arming protection money from a local storeowner. The difference is that extortion is a crime, while coercing agancy fees or dues from workers is not.” Ms. Terry? Laborious Ride? “America’s most efficient railroad.” DuPONT Unionize Or Die! Omnipotent Government By Ludwig von Mises VII. 3. The German Workers & German State Page 155. “ No liberal government has ever denied” the right of workers to associate with one another” or denied “the right to form associations.” The strike is the “chief method which trade‑unions can and do apply” in their III. 6. Interventionism Page 63. Governments of some countries— “ They give a free hand to the labor unions by acquiescing in the use of compulsion and coercion by unions against reluctant employers and employees. If it were otherwise . . . The strike would fail to force the employer to grant higher wages than those fixed by the unhampered market, if he were free to employ men to take the place of the strikers. The essence of labor‑union policy today is the application or threat of violence under the benevolent protection of the government.” [ Greece’s Bailout was received “a year ago,” and “not a single public servant has been laid off.” “And what are they propping up? An economy whose major reason for existence for the last forty years has been to provide benefits to its public sector clientele and to those that had ‘diasyndesis,’ or connections to the state.” Greek Vote, The Only Cure! ] Page 64. “The unions represent, therefore, a vital part of the state apparatus of compulsion and coercion.” [ Federal Rule‑Making, State Legislation, Forced Unionism, Boeing’s Flight Boeing Blocked! ] “ The artificially elevated Z wage rates A cause permanent unemployment of a considerable part of the potential labor force. At these higher rates the marginal employments for labor are no longer profitable.” Page 65. “Government spending $ is not an appropriate means to brush away unemployment. If the government finances its spending by collecting taxes or by borrowing from the public, it curtails the private citizens’ power to invest and to spend to the same extent that it increases its own spending capacity. If the government finances its spending by inflationary methods (issue of additional paper money or borrowing from the commercial banks) it brings about a general rise of commodity prices.” $ Robert B. Reich: Government spending is “needed to offset the continued reluctance of consumers and businesses to spend.” “Consider also that state and local governments are slashing jobs and services— . . . so the feds probably need to spend even more.” “ There is but one remedy for lasting unemployment of great masses: the abandonment of the policy of raising wage rates by government decree or by the application or the threat of violence. Those who advocate interventionism because they want to sabotage capitalism and thereby finally to achieve socialism are at least consistent. They know what they are aiming at.” ( Atlas Is Shrugging In IX. 6. Nazism and German Labor Page 220. In Weimar Germany “ it was practically impossible for a worker to stay outside of all the big trade-union groups. If he wanted a job or did not want to be dismissed, or if he wanted the unemployment dole, he had to join one of these unions.” “ These millions of organized workers were forced to pay lip service to the creeds of their parties, to vote for their candidates at the elections for Parliament and for union offices, to subscribe to the party newspapers, and to avoid open criticism of the party’s policy.” Page 221. “Years before 1933 the ranks of German trade-unions were already full of people secretly sympathizing with Nazism. Thus German labor was not greatly disturbed when the Nazis finally forcibly incorporated all trade-union members into their Labor Front. They turned toward Nazism because the Nazis had a program dealing with their most urgent problem— foreign trade barriers. The other parties lacked such a program.” TaxJudas.com and Morrill Tariff, “ The War Tariff ” Patriotic Duries. 1929 Crash, Smoot‑Hawley tariff bill A Win For Trade with Mexico! EPA Caps-Off [ Jobs in pipeline ] John Duncan critiqued EPA. National Right to Work Act National Open-Shop Bill, Closed Shop legislation? Shuffle Off To Buffalo: Falls Facts? A The “Cheerful Science” ? Z IPSEITY.us Right to Work States Effects of Right to Work Sacred geese of Juno Moneta Juno Moneta BankDis.org Isonomia.us LandGrab.US ScoolDaze.com Yearn to EARN ! |
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