Here is a terribly revealing editorialin the Wall Street Journal. The topic is an attempt by the Teamsters in Los Angeles to prevent any but Teamster-driven trucks from servicing the ports of LA and Long Beach. Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa is happy to help his “friends” but needs federal assistance because the proposed rules would violate the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. He has some old Washington scoundrels, Dick Gephardt and James Oberstar on board to push for legislation authorizing ports to engage in the sort of special interest politics Villaraigosa and the Teamsters want.
Assuming that such legislation starts moving in Congress, do you think our Beloved Leader would do anything to stop it? I sure don’t.
There’s nothing new in this, of course. Big Labor has played the game of using political clout to get what it can’t get through voluntary means ever since the 1930s. If the Teamsters resorted to violence to intimidate non-union truckers (as in the days of Jimmy Hoffa) they might just get caught. It’s so much easier just to grease the palms of politicians to have them do the dirty work of preventing competition for them. The Teamsters and the pols gain and the costs are spread to the rest of society. Bastiat called it “legal plunder.”
