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By Carl Horowitz/Human Events
Union membership as a share of the labor force is at its lowest level in decades. Only 11.9% of all U.S. employees in 2010 belonged to a labor organization. Yet as the unfolding drama in Wisconsin this year has revealed, unions are far from irrelevant. Indeed, public-sector employees have emerged as one of the most powerful forces in the nation’s economic and political life, driving many states and localities to severe fiscal distress. Their close alliance with the Democratic Party has accelerated this trend.
The main reason for this state of affairs is that government employee unions, like their counterparts in the private sector, function as monopolies. They enjoy exemptions and affirmative grants of permission under federal and state law unavailable to nonunion workers. Union leaders and employees view nonmembers, who offer their services more cheaply, as their natural adversary. As such, they will use all means possible to maintain their bargaining advantage.
