|
Jan. 24, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
EDITORIAL: Labor statistics
Bad news for organized labor last week -- and ominous
news for taxpayers.
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.
Of particular interest in the statistics, though, was
the fact that a majority of union members -- 51.5
percent -- now work for some level of government.
Thus it also becomes apparent why most labor
organizations embrace the modern Democratic Party and
its tax-and-spend, big government philosophy.
Notes Daniel Henninger of The Wall Street Journal: "The
central battle in our time is over political primacy. It
is a competition between the public sector and the
private sector over who defines the work and the
institutions that make a nation thrive and grow."
As union membership in the public sector has exploded,
"They broke the public's bank. More than that, they
entrenched a system of taking money from members' dues
and spending it on political campaigns. Over time this
transformed the Democratic Party into a public-sector
dependency."
A political party that has evolved into the party of
government. Labor unions that increasingly depend on
government growth for survival. Where does that leave
the taxpayers, who must pay the bills?
(Back
to Index)
 |
