Something that made me mad

While watching the 11:00 news, I twice saw a stupid little commercial for unionfacts.com.

The basic point of the commercial was that labor unions were evil organizations that stole hard-earned money from honest workers and used it to support bad candidates and lazy workers.

I'm not in a union, and haven't been in one for 20 years. But I wish I was, and the decline of union membership, power, and importance is terrible- for workers and for the country in general.

I feel strongly about it, I guess.

Therefore, the commercial pretty well ticked me off. I visited the site. It's exactly what I expected; a propaganda tool run by people who are far, far-removed from any need for a labor union. Or so they think.

There was no information about the site managers at that particular site- no one willing to claim direct responsibility for the idiocy, I guess. But a closely-linked site had some info.

The people so desperate to save workers from nefarious unions were graduates of Yale, Translvania, Northwestern, Michigan, Drake, and William & Mary. They were lawyers, and "public affairs" experts, and advertisers. Spin doctors. They were industry representatives, of course.

Why was I willing to waste time researching it? Darned if I know. It just pushed one of my buttons.

I get mad because people don't see the need for unions even though most of the history of the world provides ample proof that no one's going to pay a dime more than they have to for anything, and that includes both consumers buying products and employers paying (or avoiding paying) wages and benefits and disability and injury compensation, and for safety.

A common opinion seems to be that unions were useful in the past but unnecessary now, since worker conditions have improved.
My belief is that the steady decline of unions and organization is coinciding with a steady decline in worker conditions, compensation, and security, and that it's not a coincidence.

Unions might not be as necessary now as in the past, but soon they'll be every bit as necessary again.