The growing government labor force will add to organized labor's clout.
The stranglehold unions have over politicians (and more importantly, us) will get that much worse as more of the unionized labor force consists of government workers.
From a piece by William Voegeli on the Claremont Institute:
In 2008, a mere 7.6% of all private-sector workers belonged to labor unions, while 26.9% of utility companies' employees were unionized - utilities being, in most cases, regulated monopolies retaining considerable power to set their own rates. And, of course, the only "industry" where unions have flourished in the past 40 years has been government, the ultimate monopoly.
The same Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that 36.8% of public-sector employees were union members last year. (To put the point another way, while private-sector workers were more than five times as numerous as public-sector ones in 2008 - 108 million compared to 21 million - the number of private-sector unionized employees was only 6% larger than the number of public-sector ones; 8.3 million versus 7.8 million.)
Unless the trends that have held for decades are reversed, the majority of American union members will soon be government employees.
This figure does not even include quasi-government workers such as the United Auto Workers.
Unions have already been amply rewarded through taxpayer bailouts of industries they dominate. Democrats are working on card check and mandatory arbitration legislation to help strengthen the power of unions. Obama has placed key union leaders in pivotal spots in our government - among them, the Federal Election Commission, and as head of the key Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
A devoted union supporter now heads the Department of Labor.
Unions, especially 'public sector' government employee unions, may very well become the 4th branch of government...
[Think that through; the ranks of those who take our money by force swelling to the point that they outnumber their victims... i.e., a permanent ruling class of government employees because they have the votes to sustain it.
We need repeal the ability of public sector, i.e. taxpayer funded and so void of the mitigation effect of market competition, workers to unionize - period. It will soon become a matter of economic survival {if not already: California anyone?}]
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment