Labor Unions

Another power caste that fortunately has been losing some of its power in recent years is the labor union. These organizations take bona fide Producers and subject them to an institutionalized system that sucks away all their sprit, leaving people who ask only “what’s in it for me?” This creates a monstrous organization-as-Paraducer, which produces a product, but injects inefficiency and seeks only to perpetuate its own power.

This is an especially heinous use of Producers, many of whom are indoctrinated at a young age, or by familial persuasion, so they never know their full potential or enjoy the wealth they could earn.

The sins of the unions against Producers are manifold. The most egregious of these is the draining of the last ounce of drive and spunk. Having worked in several jobs alongside union members, I have seen this first hand. The union attitude is one of antagonism and suspicion, and that attitude invades the union member’s mind and affects every action and thought.

I cannot recall seeing a union member stay on the job for an extra sixty seconds to fix a serious problem on the production line. When the break or lunch bell rings, he’s out of there. Why? Simply because he has been taught that “da man” is only using him to make money, and the least effort should be expended to earn a paycheck. That conditioning results in a worker who is apathetic at best.

I must repeat that it is a horror and crime to pour water on the fiery spirit and creativity of a Producer, and this is what unions do.

Almost as serious is the way unions create artificial dependency. A union’s Producers are the last people on the planet who need a nanny to get them a higher wage. Perhaps the Consumers do, and perhaps the Paraducers do, but not the Producers. I have worked with intelligent Producers, union members, who showed some spark of creativity. When I asked about their job situation and aspirations, all I got was a bucket full of vitriol about management oppression. What a tragedy!

The depth to which unions penetrate certain industries is seen in the results that those industries produce. The auto industry struggles with Japan, Inc. on a continuous basis to meet the quality standards of the lowest grade Japan auto, and has since 1975. The unions have institutionalized mediocrity, changing their Producers into semi-intelligent robots on the production line. Certainly there are stories of union quality groups working for a better product, but these are the exception rather than the rule, and you can see the result in American vehicles.

Teacher’s unions are another example, railing against school choice and tuition vouchers in an effort to protect their mediocre fiefdoms and those precious union dues. They know in their hearts that achievers do not need unions, and achieving teachers will not need them, either, once they are allowed to achieve success. A mediocre teacher is a dependent, needy union member.

In one electronics company where I worked years ago, I was a new-hire technician testing circuit boards. I had only worked in one other union shop before, and I was not a union member. One of two small lights was installed incorrectly in a certain circuit board, and it did not light. This is a simple problem to fix, and I took the initiative to find a hot soldering iron, remove it, install it properly and retest the circuit board.

Just about the time I picked up the soldering iron, one of my fellow technicians whispered to me as loudly as he could, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” It seemed that circuit board repair was the purview of union members only, and I was trespassing boldly where no one had gone before. I was instructed to put down the soldering iron (quickly), and let one of the union technicians do the repair.

The union worker who was on duty was backed up, so I stood in line for about 20 minutes, waiting for her to finish up other work. I handed her the circuit board, told her what needed to be done, and went back to my work station.

She returned the circuit board to me about 30 minutes later, but she had ‘repaired’ the wrong light. So, I stood in line for another 20 minutes and explained that she now needed to repair both lights. I received the re-repaired board 15 minutes later. Total elapsed time, 85 minutes, when I could have done the work myself in less than one minute.

How many times per day does this institutionalized waste play out in America? It has to be millions.

But why do I call the unions a Paraducer power caste? Their power is derived from union dues, paid by oppressed Producers, willingly indentured to the union for life. With these dues, they support political candidates favorable to unions, candidates who themselves are gross Paraducers. Thus, they work to shore up the system that supports them, when they could not exist in the free market without it.

Things might be moving our way, though. The unions are losing clout in some areas. Fox News recently reported that:

“[U]nion membership is in a 50-year tailspin. In 1952, 36 percent of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today, that figure is less than 8 percent. Unions are failing to organize those entering the workforce, which is perhaps the most important age group for its future survival. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 4.7 percent of workers between the ages of 16 and 24 belonged to a union in 2004, down from 5.2 percent in 2002.”

It’s not a compliment when average public school graduates find the trade unions below their standards of performance!

This is causing wrangling within the large union leadership, and layoffs at their offices. The AFL-CIO coalition of unions is suffering internal fractures, with some large union components recognizing the ineffectiveness of the Paraducer methods and threatening to bolt.

In addition, the Fox News article outlined how several states prohibit unions from supporting political candidates with union dues, a practice unpopular with union members. These laws are termed paycheck protection, and union management despises them because money is the only tool they have to buy influence from political Paraducers.

Why is this happening? It can only be because the union Producers who earn the money are fed up with supporting the union boss Paraducers. Producers are realizing that they do not need to band together and be represented by thugs in order to get a decent salary. It’s about time.