There's a union protesting in Cleveland.
Is that big news? I doubt it. You probably would guess that it's one of the things unions do well, if not best. They always seem to have enough people to make any little dispute seem significant. There probably aren't that many people who know or care what the difference is between the wages of a guy who uses a shovel and wears a hardhat and a yellow vest in the union and outside of the union. What strike me odd is that the union would believe we do.
All arguments about the merits of collective bargaining aside, there's something fundamentally unfair about unions. If you don't believe this, ask any black man in America who tried to get construction work before hmmm, yesterday. I exaggerate of course, but I think it is a reasonable proposition to suggest that unions have been better to Irish and Italians than to blacks. This is the first thing that struck me when I saw the black dude with the other union dudes holding their pickets downtown Cleveland last week. Specifically, how is it that we in the public are supposed to feel sorry for the essential discriminations that unions make between labor they control and labor they do not control? It's like Ivy League lawyers telling us how difficult it is to raise kids in a dual income family.
Once upon a time, perhaps when my father was young, the idea that the majority of workers in the would should be unionized made sense. Or at least it made more sense to more people than it does now. I suspect that the idea of appealing to the public during those days was perfectly reasonable. But now, the overwhelming majority of working Americans do not owe unions. And I perceive that for the most part, our recent immigrants are not getting admitted in record numbers. So why should the public support union protests? What's in it for us?
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