Last month, union bosses from the AFL-CIO came together at a major convention in Los Angeles to discuss the future of organized labor in the United States. There they unveiled a new “Southern Strategy” aimed at revitalizing unionism. The AFL-CIO’s website noted:
What happens in the South affects the nation, and the region’s influence will grow as the South gains in both population and political representation.
Union officials are well aware that the South is the fastest-growing part of the United States, and simultaneously the part of the country with the least union representation. They do not apparently see a connection between those things, but they should.
The simple truth is that organized labor cripples economic growth. Because unions demand high wages and plush benefits, employers are unable to adequately respond to market conditions and prices. Since companies have to offer high, inflexible wages, they are necessarily limited in their ability to create jobs.
There is no better example for the pernicious effect of unions than the case of Detroit and the auto industry. In a study published by the Cato Institute, Randall Holcombe and James Gwartney wrote:
Even as the [auto] industry was collapsing, the UAW [United Auto Workers] was unwilling to offer concessions to the auto companies. Only when the companies declared bankruptcy in 2009 did the UAW offer concessions … the UAW provides an excellent case study illustrating … [the] observation that unions accelerate declining industries toward their extinction.
Today, the city of Detroit – long the proud host of the auto industry – is so economically destitute that it is mired in the largest municipal bankruptcy claim in American history.
And the citizens of Michigan are starting to realize that unions are to blame. This March, Michigan voters backed a right-to-work law that prohibited unions from forcing workers to join or pay dues. This would have been unimaginable even five years ago, but economic conditions have finally caught up with union-saturated states. The American auto industry in Detroit has collapsed. There are no jobs. And the unions are largely responsible. The people of Michigan are waking up to this; the people of North Carolina need to pay attention to the dangers of unionism.
Another sign that unionism’s flaws are obvious: Participation in labor unions is in sharp decline all across the country. This graphic from the Heritage Foundation shows the historical trend in union membership.
Given the historical trend away from union membership, it would appear that the AFL-CIO’s bid to “Organize the South,” is a last-ditch effort to save the labor movement in the United States. As traditional labor enclaves like Michigan push back against union bosses, the South has become an attractive target: There are large numbers of workers and probable sustained growth – at least until unions hamper Southern companies’ productivity.
In North Carolina, it appears that the push to “Organize the South” is already in full swing. Unions accounted for a significant portion of the “Moral Monday” protesters this summer in Raleigh. While it is hard to quantify exactly how many union members were present at the protests, at least 24 union members and officers were arrested. Some of these union members were from out of state, which suggests that there are so few union members in North Carolina that the unions had to bring in protesters from New York to exaggerate the union’s power.
More recently, two recent initiatives to unionize fast-food workers and Walmart employees are further evidence that Big Labor is making moves in the Tar Heel State. The initiative at Walmart is particularly interesting, since it appears that the demonstrators demanding unionized Walmart employees were not even employees themselves. In other words, the union is trying to get a foothold in a largely non-unionized industry.
The AFL-CIO’s “Southern Strategy” gives serious cause for concern. Although North Carolina is a right-to-work state, that could change as outside money pours in from Big Labor. What happened to Detroit could happen to Raleigh and Charlotte. On the other hand, if the AFL-CIO fails to successfully “Organize the South,” this could be the last dying gasp for the anachronistic labor movement. It may very well be that North Carolina is on the front lines of a battle to decide the future of Big Labor.
If conservative truly want to reduce food stamp recipients, want to reduce the demand for school lunch assistance, reduce medicare assistance and want a stronger middle class then unions are the correct path to economic justice in America. Shame on extremely wealthy capitalist who refuse to pay a living wage. No Corporation should be allow to go public until the corporation can prove they are good corporate citizens paying worker fairly or better yet paying union scale or above. Lay the decline in the American standard of living over your graph and you will see the decline in average household income drops with union membership. Give American worker s voice and political power for the free enterprise system to work fairly and justly.
Great comments for a Dem-troll on a conservative website, Loonie (oops, sorry Lonnie). I have a better idea for improving the lives of working folks: repeal all the job-killing regulation that businesses small and large, Democrat- and Republican-owned, must contend with each day instead of focusing on growing their business. Better still, let’s repeal the Wagner Act, you know, the National Labor Relations Act, so unions with their socialist politics and their thug bosses are banished from the land forever. That alone would cause an explosion of business activity that you would not believe, and better opportunities for EVERYONE WILLING TO WORK.
Andy, I was not aware businesses like Walmart, Variety Wholesalers Inc, McDonalds or Yum Foods and their CEO were needing more incentives to pay next month’s rent. The trickle down economics have been in effect for 30 years and the American worker need justice and a living wage. Unions with political power and the power to strike or boycott greedy owners like the ones mentioned above is the only answer.
Andy, it is clear that Lonnie is not only a troll but a union plant. Clearly he does not understand what unions fail to do for the working class because he’s drinking the kool-aid. I’m committed to fighting this “unionized movement” and rest assured they will fail. NC and the south is much smarter than these union buffoons who pay to play and lose. Lonnie can stay in Detroit if that’s the sort of cesspool he desires to live in. Obama has his goon squad out but hell even the union leaders are turning their backs on him because of his deception. But hey unions voted that pathetic dysfunctional loser into the office and now they own him. BYE BYE unions…. you degenerative cancer cell’s movement is going to get nuked!!! Look at what unions have done to government workers in DC… they’ve recruited garbage and the quality shows. The south represents hard working honest Americans not the Detroit / Chicago style thug hustlers which is why motivated educated professionals have elected to migrate to the south leaving those Liberal losers to deteriorate in their northern sewer cities.
Jay Vee Unions give the workers a place at the table of the free market system, insuring that prosperity is shared with those who produce the sweat, service and product. We have plenty of history of the greed and injustice, of non union Capitalism. Remember the Robber Barron era, the writings of Steinbeck and Dickens before the labor movements? We also have the models of free enterprise systems in Norway, Finland, Sweden which have the world’s high standards of living with very wealthy business owners unionized labor and a healthy society of highly educated citizens able to purchase products.
Lonnie,we had the worlds highest standard of living before people like you screwed it up.Just look at Detroit if you want to know what unions will do for you.It is now like a third world country.For many years it has been run by Democrat mayors and unions.Lonnie wants the whole country to be like this basket case,and two more years of Democrats will get us there.
Larry, has his own optional reality. The historical facts are President Reagan busted the air traffic controllers strike and unions influence and power has been on the decline for the past three decades. As union power and influence declined so did the standard of living of wage earning American workers. Look where unions are still strong and how those workers are able to support their families and the purchasing power of workers like the UPS or USPS. The ONLY way American workers will receive economic justice is by unionizing against the gross corporate greed as we see in retail and fast food industry. Workers in these industries are working at slave wages and health insurance is often the shackle. American corporations will never willingly pass along prosperity to workers who have no power, unions give the worker power.
Lonnie,The loss of manufactoring jobs is what killed this country.Unions and their crazy demands had a lot to do with that.Bush and Clinton also did us in.Clinton signed Nafta which sent 100’s of plants to
Mexico and then later to China.
The unions made the price of labor where we could not compete in a global economy.Good example is Ecusta paper in Transylvania county.They had the highest per capita income in WNC.A man from England bought the plant.he told the workers he couldn’t compete with their wages.The amount he asked to be cut would have still been more than any plant In WNC but the Union said no cuts.He closed the plant like he told them he would have to.