Forum Post: So Now The Unions Have Joined Your Cause- When Does The Violence Begin?

We all know that unions came into being due to horrible working conditions during the Industrial Revolution, right? Well, not exactly, but we will assume for a moment that this is the case.

Over the years working conditions improved to such a point that you could show up at a UAW plant during the 1970’s and make about $70 per hour (inflation adjusted) to assemble automobiles. Everything worked great for a while and the public paid far higher prices for cars than they should have. Union workers had a great life- huge paychecks, medical & dental insurance, golden pensions. Many retired at age 50 without a care in the world.

Then a funny thing happened in the 1980’s. An Ohio company, Cincinnati Milacron, developed some of the world’s most inovative robotic assembly machines. When GM, Ford, and Chrysler attempted to purchase this equipment they were threatened by the unions with violent strikes. In fact, it took over 7 years for the first robot to be installed in a US auto plant thanks to union bullying and outright violence. The result- Honda and Toyota’s dominance of the auto industry.

There were other results too. General Motors was sucked dry by the unions, culminating in its’ eventually bankruptcy. This was not your typical bankruptcy, mind you, it was the first bankruptcy in US history (that I am aware of) where the rule of law was disregarded. Creditors who were owed money by GM in the form of bonds were told by President Obama that they were “rich investors”. These investors, who were mostly pension funds, were offered about 8 cents on the dollar (even though their claims were in front of union pension claims). The unions came out of the bargain being vested, and owning a large portion of GM stock. Some “bail-out”.

So how do unions retain this power to extort money from the taxpayers? Violence. Since 1991 there have been approximately 1,300 acts of violence by union members against workers, the public, and management. Here is a list of the most violent unions, in order of number of reports to law enforcement: Teamsters- 450 incidents Labor- 220 incidents Service Unions- 170 incidents UAW- 160 incidents UBEW (Electrical Workers)- 125 incidents

If you are doing the math, that is one violent incident every 6 days.

I really hope that something positive comes out of this movement, but an alliance with union thugs makes you lose all credibility.