Labor Day

By Mitchell

We're back from an extended Labor Day break.

At NRO, the editors give us something to think about for Labor Day - the state of organized labor in the United States. I think most of us know that the union movement in ths country is, to put it bluntly, a scandal. The conclusion:

In ages past, when the worker’s lot was much worse than it is today, union leaders stuck to what they did best: collective bargaining and improvement of work conditions. They fought for the well-being of their workers, but frequently opposed government intervention in the workplace, understanding that a free market would create jobs and opportunities for all. Today’s labor leaders simply fight to preserve their power, often at the expense of both the workers they represent and the country as a whole. Unfortunately, their closest political friends hold a majority in Congress.

And just to be fair, there's this piece I wrote a few years ago on the flip side of organized labor: Corporate America. As I said in the summing-up, "Just because the company owns your time, it doesn’t mean it owns your life or your soul. That’s a message all too often lost on Corporate America."

Would that we had a Corporate America in which we didn't require unions. Would that we had unions honest enough to keep Corporate America on the straight and narrow.

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