Certainly this last election was troubling for me here in Carolina. We saw all the obvious, no need to rehash that here and now. However, upon further reflection, I am perhaps most troubled by the increased influence of the labor movement here in North Carolina. As a transplant, my history of struggles between the state and the unions is incomplete, but I understand that it has been brutal at times and even bloody.
Be that as it may, the impact of labor unions on the economic health of a state is dramatic and obvious. And as the economic health goes, so goes the health of that state in general. This includes the ability to create jobs, to keep those jobs, to balancing the budget and creating an environment that allows general and overall growth of that state.
This afternoon I came across this entry from Carpe Diem. In it, Perry is showing that the highest ranking states in the “Economic Outlook Rankings” are almost all Right to Work states while the lowest are not. Further, the net migration numbers are showing that people are leaving those Union Friendly states in droves. And where are they moving to? You got, Right to Work states.
But this is not news, it is just demonstrating what we really, already know. That unions destroy economic progress. And people, knowingly or not, vote with their feet and simply leave. And typically, those that CAN leave are the ones that DO leave resulting in a continued downward spiral. For example, see California:
California, which once lured Americans from near and far, is now driving out millions of the most productive residents – including high percentages of the most affluent.
“When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state,” says a report called “Rich States, Poor States” by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. “Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole.”
So this is what has me concerned about this past year’s election; the increased influence of the labor movement. And here is why:
Big Labor’s Top Ten Special Privileges
1. Exemption from prosecution for union violence.
2. Exemption from anti-monopoly laws.
3. Power to force employees to accept unwanted union representation.
4. Power to collect forced union dues.
5. Unlimited, undisclosed electioneering.
6. Ability to strong-arm employers into negotiations.
7. Right to trespass on an employer’s private property.
8. Ability of strikers to keep jobs despite refusing to work.
9. Union-only cartels on construction projects.
10. Government funding of forced unionism.
Just take a look at this list. While I always have had a good healthy distrust and dislike for Unions, I have never seen it laid out bare like this. Not ONE of these things even passes the basic sniff test. Now don’t get me wrong, I fully support the right of worker or workers to “unite” in their common goal to approach management and offer a bargaining position. What I do not support, is this legal mandate that exists that offers this kind of protection to a single organization.
And this is what scares me.