The Union Fable

IBD editorials ^ | September 8, 2009 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

[Kaslin]

Labor: Praise for organized labor was fulsome as usual over the Labor Day weekend. But a poll showing public support for unions hitting an all-time low shows that Americans are seeing through the mist of deception.

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According to a Gallup poll taken Aug. 6-9, only 48% of Americans now approve of labor unions — a big drop from the 59% Gallup found last year

It's no coincidence that the public has also become aware of the harm that unions cause. More than half (51%) believe unions hurt the "U.S. economy in general" while only 39% believe they help. And 46% believe they hurt the companies where workers are organized, one more percentage point than those who think they help.

In all three cases, the numbers are the opposite of what they had been for years. Until 2009, most Americans felt unions helped both the economy and the companies that are organized.

Why the shift? Over the last year, the public has watched Chrysler, a union shop, continue to struggle, and General Motors, another unionized company, fall into the hands of the federal government. The public knows that decades of union demands have played a large role in the undoing of these auto giants.

[Kaslin]

[Carley]

Obama used our tax dollars to pay off the unions.

Of course, they love him. Their health care is guaranteed not to be taxed.

O will tax our health care to pay for theirs.

The rest of America is not stupid enough not to have noticed.

[narses]

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[God luvs America]

bump

[who_would_fardels_bear]

This is a disingenuous article for two reasons:

1) It is based on polling personal opinion rather than presenting hard data or logical arguments. There is no marshalling of facts, or any type of logical argumentation to prove or disprove that the claims regarding unions are "myths". There isn't even a clear definition of what the "myths" are supposed to be.

2) When politicians like Obama talk about our debt to unions they are usually referring to what unions did in the past, e.g. 40-hour work week, etc. The polls referred to in the article ask about what are unions doing for us now. So it seems a bit of equivocation is going on: claim that a poll showing that people don't think that unions are doing anything for us lately is a refutation of unions ever having been good for us.

For a while these IBD editorials actually started sounding reasonable. Now its back to the old knee-jerk pro-croney-capitalist shilling of old.

Recently there was a poll of typical Americans on "What have IBD editorials done for America Lately?" Here are the results:

IBD Editorials have had a positive influence on America: 1%
IBD Editorials have had a negative influence on America: 2%
IBD Editorials? What the heck is IBD?: 97%

[Randy Larsen]

IBD should due a survey of Union members only!

I have a feeling the numbers may stun the world!

[Brad from Tennessee]

[IBD should due a survey of Union members only!]

I agree. Many are not members by choice but work in closed shops. Others are coerced into joining in workplaces dominated by the union. In 2004 many rank-and-file firefighters and police officers revolted over their leadership’s endorsement of John Kerry. There has been a war for some time between members and bosses of SEIU.

[Randy Larsen]

That’s why they want “Card Check”...

If the union I have to belong to wants to try to intimidate me...they better be packin’ something larger than a baseball bat!

[Brad from Tennessee]

I lived in Central Massachusetts for two years, the result of a job transfer from Florida. In the school district where I lived school bus drivers were independent contractors who bought their own buses at considerably expense and drove as many runs as the schedules would permit them. Some bought a bus for their wife and she drove too. These people eked out a living. One guy who always had two buses at his house lived a few blocks down the road from me. I was shocked, angered and amused one day to see a handful of large, Teamster picketers in black leather jackets standing in front of this guy's house with signs demanding he join their union. He declined their offer and after a week or so they disappeared. In those days I wouldn't have been shocked if the Teamsters burned his barn. But they didn't.