Gruesome new poll numbers on public support for unions–the percent who say they “mostly hurt”the U.S. economy jumps from 39% in 2006 to 51% last month, for example. …. Tom Edsall calls them “horror show numbers” and wants an explanation! Hmmm. I wish I could say “card check”–the labor plan to avoid secret ballots when organizing–but that isn’t the most visible of the roles unions have played recently. The most visible would be 1) the auto industry, where the UAW helped bankrupt two of the Big Three and stuck taxpayers with the bill without even taking a cut in hourly pay….
There’s more, please go read it. I’d also add the outright thuggery of the SEIU goons at townhall meetings. Average people got to see the tactics that union goons use up close and personal. It is not sitting well. And the Democrats that think the unions can save their jobs might want to reconsider.
The Obama administration used thuggery and the courts to steal two American auto companies and give them to the UAW. Kaus wonders if the UAW killed “card check”. I wonder if the UAW didn’t just kill unions outright.
This card check business is a sore point with me. A number of times we had local votes on strictly local issues.
Our ballot was a large sheet of paper with every member’s name on it and you wrote in yes or no beside your name. The ballot was circulated among all members and the last to vote was the union steward. He then scanned the list to see how everyone voted. If a vote was found not to be along union lines, he would ask : are you sure this is how you want to vote? That is what card check will become. On steroids.
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