Unions don’t work anymore

The American union movement fought slavery with Abraham Lincoln and sweat shops alongside Mary Harris “Mother” Jones back in the day. 

Unions were great … in the 1880s.

Today unions don’t work. Federal and state employment laws protect workers, making the union proposition – for employers competing for the best work force and employees seeking out the best companies – useful as teats on a boar.

Sorry. I know it’s considered uncool to question unions given the important early history. But that was then and now is now. The numbers don’t lie: Unions are irrelevant in today’s work environment. 

The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union has fallen since 1983, when 20.1% of American workers were union members. In 2023, 10.0% of U.S. workers were in a union.

To accelerate the trend, union leadership has been captured by anti-capitalist ideologues who have become increasingly kooky as they worm themselves into the middle of company/worker relationships with the promise of a better life for both. 

It happens for neither.

Unions slow down profit-making companies. They create a system in which workers make more per hour, but less in their actual take-home pay. Generous benefits previously used to lure and retain the best workers are replaced with substandard union kick-back schemes. 

That’s the history. That’s the truth. 

Want a good example? Take a look at what is happening at Station Casinos in Las Vegas. A once happy, kick-ass union-free workforce — the envy of other casinos — gave the Culinary Union a try a few years back. Now the workers can’t wait to decertify the union.

Get a load of the retort from the union. 

“Station Casinos is owned by Red Rock Resorts, the only publicly traded Nevada gaming company whose board is all-white and all-male.”

I ask you in all seriousness, who gives a shit. This reaction reflects how irrelevant unions have become. The union had its chance to make lives better … and they failed. 

Who says that? 

The workers. That’s why they are moving to decertify. 

Look, in this day and age, employers treasure a union-free workforce more than the Culinary values inking another standard casino contract. With federal and state employment supplanting traditional union protections, good workers looking to make a career in the Nevada resort industry are waking up to the fact they are far, far better off (and more valued and rewarded) in a union-free environment. 

That’s how it looks to me. And, that’s also how Alabama workers saw it last Friday. Workers at two Mercedes factories said “hell no” to the United Auto Workers. The Associate Press reports:

“TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A decisive vote against the United Auto Workers union at two Mercedes factories in Alabama on Friday sidetracked the UAW’s grand plan to sign up workers at nonunion plants mainly in the South.

“Employees at Mercedes battery and assembly plants near Tuscaloosa voted 56% against the union in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board.”

Unions are so last century. No other way to see it.

ONE TACO SHORT

President Joe Biden has decided to claim executive privilege over the audio tape between the special prosecutor and himself. You knew he would because this is the conversation Hur said helped prosecutors realize Mr. Biden was one taco short of a combination plate.

If it were released, it would reinforce the idea that our president is in noticeable mental decline. It would remind voters he’s in no shape to run for another term.

Look, if this audio tape showed the president in a clear mental state and sharp as William F. Buckley Jr., they’d want you to hear it, right?. 

You bet. 

But, it doesn’t. 

Let’s not pretend otherwise.

ONE MORE THING

– I am calling on all hotels to agree on one (and only one) shower control mechanism. Life is precious and I cannot waste any more of it solving these ancient riddles.

(Thanks for reading. Remember to laugh a little, avoid soreheads and always question authority. Sherman R. Frederick is a journalist and a member of the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. He’s an Episcopal priest and friend to dogs. You can reach him via email at shermfrederick@gmail.com. You can read more of his work at shermanfrederick.substack.com and also follow him on Facebook and X.)