Replies

Thanks for the excellent reply.

Comment:
However I think their main role has been to raise the wages of union workers.
Reply:
There is nothing wrong with that. You have a First Amendment right to make associations with anyone you please, and that includes a right to bargain for higher wages.
Response:
I agree there is freedom of association. But when “bargaining” is done with baseball bats, that is another matter.

What about more peaceful threats, like a collective walk-out? We soon get into the topic of scabs and the threat of violence. If (often coerced) workers leave en masse, can they be replaced en masse? Well why not? Back to violence (or the NLRB). I grant you these are hypothetical, even if historically real, scenarios. Still, violence and the realistic threat of violence has been a large part of unionism (bargaining) in my opinion.

Comment:
So while they are good for the union workers who keep their jobs, they are bad for workers in general.
Reply:
Again, there is nothing wrong with that.
Response:
Agreed. Yet the public has been told that unions are responsible for our high wages. That is not true.

Your comment:
The real problem with Big Labor is that they don’t care about the people they’re supposed to represent. They see them as nothing more than a vehicle to the leftist policy changes they want.
My reply:
Agreed

Still, violence and the realistic threat of violence has been a large part of unionism (bargaining) in my opinion.

I would agree, except to point out that as a former shop steward, business agent, and union organizer, I have seen intimidation and threats from employers just as often as from labor unions -- even though those measures are every bit as illegal coming from management as they are from labor.

With regards to physical violence, there is no question that (certain) unions are more guilty of that, and the reputation for it, if not the actual use, is something that all unions "benefit" from.

I never sanctioned it on the organizing side, but as shop steward I was asked to "put a pipe across the back of [some guy's] legs." My response was "I'm not doing that, and you are not asking any of my guys to do that, or I'll be telling the police who to charge for solicitation." Thankfully, I never had to.