The shame of the modern labor movement
Editorial
New York Post
9/6/2010
Today New Yorkers, like all Americans, are observing Labor Day — and many have the day off.
Great. No doubt, they earned it.
But the holiday — once meant to extol an honorable movement, affirm worker solidarity and celebrate gains won through collective bargaining — is an ideal time to look at what has become of the labor movement in recent years.
Alas, that doesn’t merit celebration.
Take a few of the latest developments.
In Congress, union giveaways — like the ever-upward minimum wage — have helped feed a painfully high jobless rate, now stuck near 10 percent.
Union-driven pensions, health-care programs, overtime and other work rules have nearly bankrupted industries (Detroit), threatened the fiscal integrity of state governments (California, New Jersey, New York) and wreaked havoc on entire nations (Greece).
In New York, Bronx Bor ough President Ruben Diaz Jr. actually teamed up with the unions to kill 2,200 jobs at a planned Kingsbridge Armory mall last winter.
Arguing, bizarrely, that no jobs were better than “low paying” jobs, Diaz demanded retailers at the proposed mall guarantee pay and benefits of at least 60 percent above the minimum wage.
Understandably, the developer balked, the mall died — and the jobs evaporated.
Terrific.
The op-ed continues at the New York Post.
