Unions Preventing a Timely Cleanup of Oil in the Gulf?

Joseph Carafano of the Heritage Foundation has made an interesting observation and wonders if President Obama is allowing unions to make it harder to effect a timely and effective cleanup of the BP oil spill in the Gulf?

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The offer of aid from foreign companies has been refused by the Obama administration and the Jones Act is cited as the reason why Obama will not allow foreign ships to enter our waters to assist in the cleanup. The Jones Act is a 1920s protectionist law put in place to assure that boats and crews working in American waters are American crews and union members. Carafano thinks that Obama is using the Jones Act as a sop to unions despite what it is doing to slow the cleanup.

“'Cause this is a big thing for unions,” Carafano said. “The unions see it as … protecting jobs. They hate when the Jones Act gets waived, and they pound on politicians when they do that. So … are we giving in to unions and not doing everything we can, or is there some kind of impediment that we don’t know about?

Once again, just as with car manufacturing and education, we see unions getting in the way of best practices, safety, and the creation of the optimal American lifestyle. In this case, we see President Obama paying unions back as wildlife dies and the livelihood of millions of American is destroyed for decades to come.