Editorial: Why Labor Bosses Are So Adamant About Pushing Card Check
Monday, January 25th, 2010 by adminThe Las Vegas Review-Journal sums it up best:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that union membership fell again last year to 12.3 percent of all workers. The drop was particularly significant in the private sector, where union membership slipped 10 percent.
The numbers reflect why labor bosses are so adamant about pushing “card-check” legislation through Congress. Rigging the game by getting rid of secret-ballot organizing elections — which unions often lose — might help reverse years of membership declines.
There was an important fact coming out of the latest numbers on union membership: public-sector unions now outweigh private-sector unions. What does that mean? Here’s one way to look at it:
Compare that to the world of government employment, where there is no employer to tell people why a union might not be best for them (we’re the employer, but we’re a little busy with our day jobs) and you get 37.4 percent of government workers paying dues. All told, that’s 7.9 million that we pay and 7.4 million paid by people who actually create wealth.
