By Warner Todd Huston —— Bio and Archives April 14, 2010
Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us
On private payrolls unions lost 835,000 members and union density fell from 7.6 in 2008 to 7.2 percent, but in public employment unions gained 64,000 members and union density increased to 37.4 percent from 36.8 in 2008.This is an alarming fact where it concerns the right of the voters to control their own government. As bad as unions are for productivity in the private sector, shy of government interference, at least market forces ultimately serve as a check on union overreach. But when wholly ensconced in the not so real world of government unions have little check on their power. Unfortunately for the voters, unions wield the great power of deep-pocket, political contributions and their large donations affect lawmakers in a much greater way than the mere vote of individual citizens. It is a vicious circle. Unions donate to politicians to get favorable laws passed and friendly rules put into effect, politicians then acquiesce to union demands in order to get those contributions, then unions turn back around and give even more to politicians who respond with even more favors, all in a never ending cycle of money, power and special interest favors. This continues without end because neither the unions nor the politicians ever pay any price for this incestuous upping of the ante as it is the taxpayers, the ones without any power in this cycle, that pay the price. In fact, even when voters do attempt to elect politicians that campaign on putting curbs on the power of public employee unions their will is thwarted by the courts to which unions run for cover. California is a perfect example of this. Voters threw out Governor Gray Davis for Arnold Schwarzenegger who told voters that he’d rein in the budget. But even the modest checks on unions Schwarzenegger has tried to implement to solve the Golden State’s budget problems have failed. When he tried to give some public employee union workers furlough days to lower the cost of government, the unions ran screaming to the courts, courts that immediately backed up the unions acting against both the will of the voters and of common sense. Like a criminal racket, the taxpayers are constantly being robbed by politicians to pay unions so that unions can give donations back to politicians only to repeat the cycle. It easily invokes the old idiom of Robbing Peter to pay Paul. And the taxpayers are poor, put-upon Peter.
Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.