In Defense of Unions: a Real American institution

( – promoted by KathyinBlacksburg)

So, you say, unions have lost their purpose in the U.S. Unions are invalid, corrupt, and a drag on the U.S. economy.

You show me charts, graphs, and figures about the inefficiencies of unions and their detrimental effect on business growth. But have you heard the stories about how unions have saved the middle class in America? Do you care to know that thousands, even millions, of hard-working Americans have a stable job that won’t be sent overseas or slashed so top executives can make windfall profits?

There is a gap in the libertarian and conservative discourse regarding the pros and cons of unionized workers, with the latter taking the wholly disproportionate focus of these individuals attention and vitriol.

I will be the first to point out the many flaws that many different unions in the U.S. have, but do we simply throw the baby out with the bathwater? No of course not.

My father is a member of the Communication Workers of America and a retired member of the Air Force. If you mean to tell me that my father and his family do not deserve respite from the tumultuousness nature of our economy after all of his hard work then the U.S. has surely lost its way.  

Those who argue against the existence of unions claim to want innovation, entrepreneurship, and a reduction of red tape. Unions, it’s argued, stifle all of these desires. But in your thinking, you only see yourselves and not the bigger picture that is the social whole.

I value the rights of individuals just as much as anyone, but I also realize that a republic lives and dies by the willingness of its citizens to sacrifice for one another and the social good from time to time.

Unions are not the cause of recessions, depressions, or bankruptcies. Unions have simply become a convenient bogeyman to brush all of our economy’s problems onto.

Unions, just like any other institution, can lose some of its original meaning after successive generations step into positions of power. But the goals and purposes of unions still retain a vastly important place in our society, now maybe more so than in many years past.

Having a life-raft on a tumultuous ocean is not a crime and it is not an incentive to wreck the ship. The life-raft can be the biggest incentive to work hard and live without the constant fear of drowning.

The ultimate issue is not about innovation, entrepreneurship, or cutting red tape. It’s about the lives of real people, and how well they can live their lives in the wealthiest country our planet has ever witnessed.