July 18, 2007

(South Carolina) - We received two excellent letters about topical subjects, today, from the same person. One is well thought out. The other is touching and emotional. Over the next couple of days, we will be printing them both. Please read them. It may stimulate your thinking.

I suppose unions served a useful purpose in the beginning, but living in Detroit for a decade gave this Southern girl a new perspective on the impact of unions on our economy. Something is drastically wrong when a man with a third-grade education earns $19/hr for sweeping floors at Cadillac Motor Company (in 1985!). Oh, he couldn't dust or mop, just sweep. Someone else earned $19/hr for each of the other tasks. I assume this happened across the automotive industry, to one degree or another.

To off-set the costs of the UAW death-grip, the car makers raise the price of cars. The doctors, lawyers, hoteliers, grocers, parts manufacturers, etc., have to raise their prices to afford automobiles. Of course, the union workers then need a raise to pay for increasing costs in the marketplace--so they organize a strike.

During a strike, everyone loses, and the union workers can NEVER make up the lost wages, nor off-set the spiraling costs. In one of my menial jobs, I had to pack boxes with the new UAW contract manuals, which were sent to every union worker on the planet. The manuals were bound like high-quality paperback books, with embossed vinyl covers. So, now we add the cost of printing, binding, embossing, packaging, and shipping. The unions have to make up the money it cost to strike (sub-pay, etc), so union dues go up.

High wages for the uneducated take away all incentives to acquire education. The educated are not as easily led or deceived, so the union leaders have a serious interest in keeping their uneducated workers happy.

I could go on and on and on, but I'll stop with this thought: in my mind, unions most resemble communism (at best) or organized-crime (at worst). When my air freight customer service department was rumbling about joining a union, my boss called us in individually to see how we felt about it. I told him I wouldn't join a union if they held a gun to my head. He asked, "What will you do if the shop goes union?"

"Quit," I replied. "I may be uneducated, but I'm not stupid."

Linda Watkins is a South Carolinian, a registered nurse, a writer, and a deep believer in the original intent of the Constitution.