First, unions are unpopular with ordinary Americans. A
Gallup poll last September found that 48 percent of Americans approve of unions, an all-time low since Gallup began asking the question in 1936.
Unions are unpopular for good reason. They have a tawdry history of connection to organized crime and a continued reputation for thuggery. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
Web page on organized crime: “Labor racketeering has become one of La Cosa Nostra’s fundamental sources of profit, national power and influence,” and, “For decades, the Teamsters has been substantially controlled by La Cosa Nostra.”
While the FBI cites progress in cleaning things up, the history has not been forgotten by Middle America.
The second problem is that union policies are bad for the economy -- and for the unions themselves.
To the extent that government’s support of unions succeeds in driving up wages, those policies will reduce employment and make the slow labor recovery worse. To the extent that unionization spreads to new firms, we can expect the higher associated costs to reduce growth, and even, as was the case with U.S. automakers, help propel the companies into bankruptcy.
