Hillsdale history professor Paul Moreno argues here that we have the union movement to thank for government mandates of “affirmative action” in the labor market. In the 1800s and well into the 1900s, unions were blatantly (and often violently) discriminatory against non-white workers. If they hadn’t shut them out of so many of the better-paying jobs, maybe we wouldn’t be saddled with affirmative action today.