Reich's Call for Unionization is 'a 1930s Solution to a 2009 Problem,’ Economists Say

Reich is working hand-in-hand with a coalition of labor unions and the Center for American Progress Action Fund to call for increased unionization as a means of “saving the economy.”

As part of that, Reich endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the "Card Check" bill, which would allow union organizers to get employees of a company to create a union simply by signing union cards -- in lieu of workplace secret-ballot elections.

Barbara Comstock of the Workforce Fairness Institute, meanwhile, isn’t buying Reich’s analysis.

“By his logic, Michigan -- the most unionized state in the country -- would be the most prosperous state in the country and the auto industry would be the economic model that the rest of the country should follow,”

Nothing could be further from the truth, she said.

“On a day when the auto companies are asking for tens of billions of dollars more, and Michigan, according to the figures, is one of the least prosperous states with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, that argument makes no economic sense"

Economist and economic historian Robert Higgs, meanwhile, said Reich’s idea of promoting unionization “would be disastrous". Higgs, senior fellow in political economy for The Independent Institute, said that increased unionization in the 1930s actually helped to keep us in the Great Depression longer.

[Common sense folks: it's the number of people working - all of whom buy washers, while not being on the government dole. Less unions, more people with jobs. Recommended > ]

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