Unions,

What good are they?

I must tell you first that I am anti-Unions. I have been my entire adult life. I don’t like anything that they have done since they were granted anti-trust exemption (Clayton Act 1914).

I go way out of my way to not buy anything that is Union made. I do not buy Union made cars. I buy services and products made by hard working American citizens, just not Union made, if at all possible. I do not honor picket lines. It’s hard, but I try not to buy Union grown, picked, processed, stored, or delivered food. I am mostly successful at buying non-Union made clothing. I buy non-Union tools and equipment at about one half the Union made price, some of it lower quality, but I just throw it way when it goes bad. For some things we literally have no choice, for instance; gasoline is made, stored, transported, and sold by Unions. Groceries are transported, stocked, and sold by Unions, unless you buy directly from a farmer. To the extent I can I buy only non-Union. It’s much cheaper, about $5,000 less for the average car, and they are better quality and more reliable. Non-Union clothing is more than half price. Non-Union food is less than half price.

I do it to punish Unions and Union leaders. I’m sorry it harms Union members.

In 1966 I worked at Patrick Air Force Base for a contractor on the Apollo-Saturn manned space flight program to land men on the moon. My first job was as a high pressure gas mechanics helper. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union (IBEW) represented the craft people in my work place. I was in college and knew I would soon be leaving that job to become one of the Ground Support Coordinators for Launch Operations. The Union steward insisted I join the Union. I declined several times. He insisted that bad things might happen to me without the Union’s protection. I still declined. They did little things in the beginning; stole my lunch, filled it with grease, sabotaged my tools and my work products, and then asked again, I declined.

One of the mechanics and I had very similar old Chevy Corvair’s we drove to work, sometimes parked near each other, sometimes not. One day the steward and several Union members came into my shop screaming, “Your car is on fire.” I ran out thinking the worst. I knew something was wrong immediately because we were not running toward where I had parked that day. It wasn’t my car, it was a Union members car turned on its side leaking gasoline someone had lighted on fire. The Union member, with the 12 children, wasn’t there. I stood quietly staring at the burning car and the steward and members there stared at me waiting for a painful anguished reaction. I gave none. After a couple minutes of quiet reflection the steward said, “It’s a shame about your car.” I said, “Not really, that’s not my car.” I had given a friend a ride to work that day and parked near his building instead of mine.

This was not the only incident in my life. Many times Unions have threatened me and my family with violence, harassed my children and my wife, called my home all hours of the night, said vile vulgar things to my wife and threatened me with physical violence on the phone. In 1985 it was the Teamsters Union at Fort Irwin, California. In the 1990’s it was a government employees Union because I testified as an expert witness against them in a false claim of asbestos exposure.

Incidentally, I quite being a fan of Major League Baseball in the 1990's after the player's went on strike, the owners behaved badly and then the Umpires went on strike.  In-spite of having been a lifelong fan, that's when I quite supporting the MLB; haven't gone to a game, or bought their merchandise, or watched them on TV since, including the World Series.  I have been National Football League fan since 1955, and Saints fan for 37 years, if they go on strike and there's no Football this fall, I'll not buy another NFL product, NFL Fan programing subscription, or watch another NFL game the rest of my life. Incidentally, they both have anti-trust exemptions that should be revoked.

Also I do not buy any products from quasi-government industries that are Unionized.  I do not use Railroads, passenger or freight.  I avoid Union trucking and delivery whenever possible.  I do not use the the US Postal Service any more than is absolutely necessary.  And I think it is ridiculous that I must pay admission to National Parks and museums.  I refuse to borrow money for home loans that are supported, back, or purchased by Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac.  I detest Federal contracting that insists on buy American or requires Unions or union-like pay schedules.

So, although I have known and respect many individual craft Union members; I have no respect for Unions and Union leaders because of their widely accepted immoral and unlawful behaviors.

I ask only a few simple questions. What have the Unions done for us lately?

Which Unions have increased productivity, efficiency, sped up service or improved product quality, increased supply, lowered prices, increased profit, created real jobs or wealth and any noticeable tax revenue?

My answer is none, in my 65 year lifetime. Union members are worst off than ever in my life. That could be why Union membership has declined so dramatically.

Unions just collect dues and funnel them mostly to Democrat political campaigns. They short their members on bragged about services, claims of successes and rights, and shovel money to easily corrupted politicians while protecting the jobs of the lame, lazy and incompetent and occasionally a very few deserving hard workers that may have been wronged.

So I ask you to name one Union that has done more good than harm since 1946?

I may not know, or perhaps haven’t heard of some Unions that have done something wonderful without destroying individual esteem, thwarting personal responsibility, intimidating the best workers, protecting the guilty, preventing education and training, discriminated against new, young and the most productive employees, forcing lower productivity, increasing costs unnecessarily, complicating work process, sabotaging progress, stifling decent, extorting detractors, and threatening those who decline to contribute to their demeaning, and corrupt extortion schemes.

Their usefulness is long passed and this cesspool of corruption calls out for reform and serious change.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. All Union membership and the payment of dues must be optional.

2. Prosecute all Union threats of extortion; these are crimes you would be arrested for if you were caught doing them to another citizen.

3. Prohibit all political contributions from Unions.  Union members can contribute their hard earned money to whatever they want.

4. Revoke their anti-trust exemption and levy Federal taxes on all revenue improperly used.

5. Make them fully fund promised pensions and benefits from their revenue.

6. Prosecute them for all false claims, suits and accusations.

7. Change all labor proceedings and court cases to “loser pays”.

8. Un-fund and close the Department of Labor. What they might do can easily be accomplished by civil and criminal courts, and many other existing government departments and programs.

The Union’s time, meaning and usefulness have come and gone. Send them to the scrapheap with other corrupt enterprises that today harm more people than they help.