Unions: The Downfall of Good Hard Work

By Scott Thompson

Spring 2009

Unions: One of the greatest evils of modern society, one of the greatest threats to capitalism since the creation of communism. Yes, there was a time and place for unions, but that time has long come and past. They are a waste of money and a threat to capitalism while serving no true benefits, except for those who do not deserve them. The union exists to protect the workers, but they already accomplished their goal of making safe working environments, fair hours, and the prevention of cruelty at the workplace. They accomplished this decades ago and have ensured that the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory incident would never happen ever again. Unions now serve to protect people's jobs, but those who work well need not fear being fired, because their quality of work ensures their job security. Unions preserve everyone's job any way they can. When it takes three workers to change a light bulb at a television studio or six workers to change one picture on the wall (one to take it down, one to move a chair out of his way, one to remove the nail from the wall, another to remove the picture from the room, another to put the nail back in the wall, and the sixth to put the new picture up, which is a true story that occurred at the Wang computer company back in the 1980s) because the unions say so, it is time for the unions to go. The workers do not control the unions, the unions control the workers. If you belong to a union, they take your money in exchange for telling you what to do, how to work, where to work, and tell you whether or not you are even permitted to work. The higher ups of unions make shadow deals behind the scenes with different companies, putting some out of business while helping others thrive. One of the leaders of the United Auto Workers Union recently became a board member at Chrysler, another example of shady dealings. How can a board member of Chrysler claim not to have a conflict of interests, between his own profits and the protection of the workers under him? If you're a member of a union, you're not allowed to work at a company not with your union. Unions leaders have ceased to care for and about their workers in exchange for lining their own pockets with money. Unions still have a job to do, but in other countries. The time for unions in this country is long past. It's time to rise up and rid ourselves of the fetters of the union overlords, a foe greater than any single company alone.

Scott Thompson is a member of the Rutgers Libertarians. He is an SAS sophomore planning to major in Information Technology and Informatics.