Free at Last

     Four decades ago I was a member of the Napoleon
School Board.  The board's negotiator worked out a union
contract requiring teachers who weren't union members to pay
the equivalent of union dues.  I was the only board member who
voted to reject the contract.

     My father worked for a railroad in Indiana when Indiana
was a right to work state.  I remember his comments about the
repeal of "right to work."  He said the unions ceased to care
about or serve their members.  The unions merely collected dues
from their captives.

     Michigan's sudden move to join the ranks of "right to
work" states where no one is forced to pay unions for the right
to have a job caught most people by surprise.  The unions, on
short notice, managed to rally the forces to reaffirm the basic
reason why I have despised unions for as long as I can remember.

     The union violence was a mere shadow of what I
remember.  Some individuals bashed a reporter and cut down a
tent.  Apparently some teachers lied and called in sick to join the
protests.  Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex. 
Apparently lying about being sick is okay.

     Some claims made in opposition to mandatory union dues
were jaw droppingly outrageous.  Heading the list was Barack
Obama's claim that unions built the middle class.  Increased
productivity built middle class prosperity.  Without that
increased productivity unions could have done nothing to
increase average income.  You can't consume what isn't made.

     If any one group built the middle class it was farmers. 
Increased production by farmers reduced the percentage of the
work force farming from about 90 percent to around 2 percent. 
That 88 percent of the work force makes the increased wealth
we have today.

     Farmers weren't the ones who brought on the agricultural
revolution.  The real movers and shakers were the inventors,
entrepreneurs and investors who provided farmers with new and
efficient means of production.

     Another outrageous claim was that eliminating mandatory
payments to unions would return us to the share cropping days
of the old South.  A few years ago my oldest son moved from
Michigan to a right to work state because he couldn't find a
decent paying job for an engineer in Michigan.

     There were 23 right to work states before Michigan
joined the club.  None of them seem to be overrun by share
croppers.

     Unions whine about free loaders.  Who are the free
loaders?  Suppose you tell your neighbor you don't want him to
mow your grass.  He mows it anyway -- and sends you a bill.  If
you refuse to pay the bill, Are you a free loader?

     Unions force representation onto non-members, then
demand that they pay.  If unions don't want to represent
non-members, the unions should quit doing it.  If laws are
preventing this, the unions should work for repeal of any laws
forcing them to represent non-members.  The freeloaders are the
unions that charge non-members for representation they don't
want.

     Right to work by itself isn't going to turn the Michigan
economy from dust to gold.  It may help a little.  Neither is
"right to work" the "right to work for less."  Unions are the ones
who reduce the average wage, and charge for doing it.

     Only increased productivity can raise the average wage
and standard of living.  Strikes, slow downs, union work rules,
etc. all decrease productivity.  Because the unions decrease
productivity, the wealth pie from which we all get our piece
prosperity is smaller than it would be without union interference.

     That smaller pie means the average piece is smaller too. 
Every gain one worker gets because of unions comes out of
other workers' pockets.  The battle isn't between labor and
management.  It is between unions and everyone else.

     Originally I hated unions for their violence.  I eventually
learned enough to despise unions because they are frauds claiming
credit for what others have done.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2012
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284