To those who buy the romanticized image of labor unions - those brave champions of the working man who work day and night to protect the best interests of just plain folks against the robber barons in the boardrooms and the plush corporate offices - it's hard to conceive of why anyone would not want to join the United Auto Workers.
Democrats who hate right-to-work laws in states that have them deride said laws as "right to work for less." You dumbasses! Why would you not join the union when it's going to get you more money and protect you from getting fired if you operate machinery drunk and stoned? You don't know what's good for you!
But shockingly to the unions and their political protectors, some people prefer not to become part of the collective. And their judgment tends to be vindicated when we see how the overlords of the collective behave when this happens. You don't want to join the union? Oh you'll be sorry. We'll see to that.
And one of the UAW's favorite methods of seeing to that is to use very public shame and intimidation. As the Washington Free Beacon reports, that includes the publishing of "scab lists" where the union publishes the names of those who have exercised their perfectly legal right under right-to-work laws and chosen not to be union members.
The point of this, of course, is not simply to put the names on the web site. That's just the start. The union wants all its members to be able to identify the "scabs" so they can be subjected to pressure, intimidation and hazing on the shop floor and around company facilities. Unions are famous for this. If you're a "scab," union members will turn their backs and refuse to speak with you. Refuse you access to certain employee facilities. Accidentally/on purpose/oh-sorry-did-I-just-do-that bump into you while passing. The idea is to make life as miserable for you as possible during every moment of the work day, so you ultimately decide to either a) join the union; or b) quit and make room for someone new that the UAW can strongarm into joining.
If joining the union was such a great thing, the UAW would not have to engage in behavior like this to intimidate people into doing it. And if the UAW was really such a great organization, it wouldn't behave like this anyway.
Right-to-work laws are designed to let people make their own decision, while removing one of the obstacles to job growth and wealth creation in states that desperately need it.
It's no wonder employers don't want to deal with unions when they treat people like this. Unions care nothing for economic rationality. All they want to do is intimidate others into giving them what they want, whether that means employees or employers, and if that leads an entire industry to the brink of collapse as it did with the domestic auto industry in 2008, they will stand up and chant (as the UAW actually did), "It's not our fault! It's not our fault!"
But these are the people who bankroll Democrat campaigns, which is why they will always be politically protected and always be allowed to continue operating in this way.
