Phil Kerpen, policy director of Americans for Prosperity, writes here about Big Labor’s desperate ploy to get Congress to rewrite the National Labor Relations Act so they can easily dragoon more people into unions and hence pay dues. Unions are non-profit businesses that sell labor and are just as interested in maximizing revenues as any for-profit business. This bill is the same as if, just by getting a majority of hamburger buyers in an area to sign a card saying that they prefer Smitty’s Hamburgers, everyone would be compelled by buy their hamburgers at Smitty’s.
The only point on which I disagree with Kerpen is his endorsement of the status quo, with its secret ballot union elections. Those elections can still lead to forcing people who don’t want a union to represent them to accept a union because a majority votes in favor. That collectivization of choice wasn’t appropriate in the 1930s and it isn’t now. Unions should only represent those people who want it.
