-By Warner Todd Huston
Years ago folks that stood against unions always had that one obstacle of “private” concerns in the way of urging people away from unionism. But today, with most unions being tied directly to government, now fighting unions is an act of beneficial government reform.
Once upon a time, the biggest hurdle for those arguing against unionism was the simple truth–and it was a truth–that unions and businesses were private concerns and if the two entities agreed to co-exist, who was an anti-union activist to say anything against the arrangement?
This is a simple, logical question that always made anti-union activists look like meddling outsiders. And the truth is, no matter how right they were that unionism is a bad idea for everyone, they were meddlers!
But today we have a far different situation for those who stand against unions. Since 1959 when unions were first allowed to organize government workers unions have slowly encroached into nearly every aspect of government causing spending to soar, bloating pensions beyond belief, and destroying the efficiency of government.
But one benefit of this horrid state of affairs is that now the anti-unionists have become government reformers! Standing against unions now is no longer an outsider’s meddling. It is now common sense government reform to agitate for the end of unions because nearly every union out there now has a direct tie to government. Getting rid of unions is officially an act of reform!
As the Associated Press recently reported, “Roughly 1-in-3 public sector workers is a union member, compared with about 1-in-15 for the private sector workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, 11.3 percent of wage and salary workers in the United States are unionized, down from a peak of 35 percent during the mid-1950s in the strong post-World War II recovery.”
Membership in unions has fallen. In 1983 20.1 percent of the American workforce was unionized encompassing 17.7 million workers–this is a drop from the peak of 35 percent of the workforce in the 1950s. Today only 11.3 percent is unionized (14.5 million workers). And most of those are government workers. At this point 35.3 percent of unionized workers work for government while only 6.7 percent of union members work in the private sector.
The fight against unions is turning against the unions, too. “A 2013 Gallup poll showed that 54 percent of Americans said they approved of labor unions, down from the all-time high of 75 percent in both 1953 and 1957” AP reported.
On nearly every front, though, unions are finding their supremacy threatened. The recent Supreme Court ruling knocking down the forced unionization of in-home healthcare workers was a blow to unions and in states like Wisconsin unions have seen their power diminished by budget conscious legislatures.
So, be proud union fighters. You have advanced from merely being right about how bad unions are economically but being somewhat powerless to do anything about it to being true government reformers by advocating the end of unionism in government.
Raise your anti-union banner and charge onward, you true American reformer. Fight those unions and make all our lives better!
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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