Union Thugs? No Kidding
Posted 08/17/2011 06:39 PM ET
Unions: An Ohio contractor was wounded by gunfire Wednesday by a shadowy man vandalizing his SUV with union threats. Where's Washington's outrage at such lawlessness?
Had King Electrical Services owner John King been shot by, say, a Tea Partyer, there'd be no end to the public pontificating from Washington's politicians and media commentators about their rhetoric or protests inciting violence.
It's quite a different story for the Lambertville, Mich., contractor who woke up in the dead of night a week ago found a silhouetted figure on his driveway spraying "SCAB" on the side of his vehicle. The figure fired a gun at him before fleeing.
King runs a small business employing 40 people at high wages with good benefits. His success at a time when unionized contractors are failing made him the target of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which has unsuccessfully sought to unionize his workers.
Now it's come down to guns, and Washington's chattering classes are strangely silent.
The attack on King is emblematic of the sad fact that the leading perpetrators of political violence today are U.S. labor unions.
They've grown more violent in their rhetoric as their political power grows and their appeal to workers diminishes.
According to the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, a right-to-work think tank in Washington, there have been 4,400 incidents of union violence in the last 20 years.
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The Teamsters are the leading perpetrators, with 454 incidents. But IBEW, which some suspect in the King incident, is in the top 10, having engaged in 125 incidents.
All told, there have been 11,600 incidents of union violence against workers, management and the public since 1975.
At the same time as the attack against King, IBEW has also engaged in a violent strike against Verizon in New York. Union strikers have been accused of cutting phone lines, firing BB guns at nonunion workers, and picketing customers. Internet videos show them using foul language and goon tactics.
One of IBEW's thugs put his own daughter in the path of a truck as a means of getting more money from his employer.
IBEW tactics have been so objectionable a federal judge ordered them this week to refrain from hurling and/or spreading feces in their strike, as if they should need to be told.
What it's about is "the persuasion of power" as former Service Employees International Union chief Andy Stern put it.
It springs from three political roots:
• The established privileges that unions have carved out for themselves over the years. Since 1973's United States vs. Enmons ruling, union leaders have been exempt from prosecution of their members' acts during strikes. They also are exempt from anti-monopoly laws, meaning better unions can't chase worse ones out on behalf of workers. They have the power to force employers to accept unwanted union representation and to collect dues from workers no matter what they want.
• They've amassed political power since the last election. The Obama White House is their captive, with union leaders such as AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka bragging about talking to the White House several times a week.
It's led to President Obama's National Labor Relations Board, charged with ensuring labor fairness, instead being stacked with union operatives who use political muscle to push for union objectives.
The totally spurious case against Boeing is a prime example.
The Obama Labor Department has also ended all transparency in union financial affairs and openly states its bias toward union workers over nonunion workers.
• Then there's the test case in Wisconsin, where unions got away with violence and thuggery even as some politicians cheered.
Unions, of course, claim they don't endorse violence. But the thuggery follows them wherever they go. It has much to do with their amassed political power.
Now it's turned to attempted murder. It's time for this to stop. Where's the leadership from the White House?
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1 comment:
It won't stop until the unions are put on the defensive -- literally. Ordinary Americans with guns will have to seek out the perpetrators and organizers of this violence and bring them to justice by their own hands, as the police and the courts are unwilling to do so. Then our numbers will win the day.
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