Why unions are hurting our economy

In response to Bill Breen’s letter in which he laments the failure of Wisconsin’s governor’s recall and the supposed fact that Americans are the lowest paid workers in all of the world’s industrial nations, I’m not convinced in the least that what he states is accurate.

I find it hard to believe that American workers make less than Chinese workers. I also think that Bill is confusing the issues of one’s income, productivity, and inflation. I don’t pretend to be a financial guru, nor do I spend time delving into labor statistics. But, as a small business owner since 1985 who has worked on private, union, and government projects, I can tell you that unions had a time and a purpose, and that time and purpose has long since passed.

In my opinion, unions only serve to cause inflation, while reducing worker productivity and quality. Instead of trying to make a profit for their employers (which are certainly attributes of good employees) or concentrating on quality, unions are self-serving, seeking to take as much from their employers as they possibly can while not being held accountable for their deficiencies. There’s nothing wrong with trying to get as much money or benefits as you can, but unions cause an adversarial relationship between employees and employers, which makes for a bad working relationship.

I can guarantee you that the union stranglehold on many cities does not increase my profit margin, nor does it ensure quality. In fact, I’ve always had much more trouble with quality on union jobs, while paying astronomical wages. Union workers seem to be far more concerned about their rights, their rates, and their benefits than they are about doing a good job and being of value to their employers. The resulting mediocrity proves that their selfishness is draining America of good work ethics and good quality products.

 Breen laments the miserly wage increases of U.S. workers since 1970, while the cost of living has increased at a greater rate, but ask yourself why the cost of living is so much higher in places like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco than places like Atlanta and Dallas. Unions! The unions are so powerful that they’ve snookered federal and state governments into playing right into their hands by instituting an idiotic concept called “prevailing wage.”

Prevailing wages are required on most government projects under the guise of supporting a “living wage” for employees. In actuality, “prevailing wage” was started simply to allow unions to compete with non-union companies. Since unions cost employers so much more money than non-union, and since unions were losing jobs as a result, prevailing-wage laws made non-union companies match union pay and benefits. The net result has been inflation, lower quality work, and myriad government jobs to regulate the prevailing wage law.

In addition to the paying of prevailing-wage rates, government projects frequently require employers to hire union apprentices in order to train union members so that they can take away non-union workers’ jobs. Some governments are waking up to the stupidity of prevailing wages (British Columbia, for example) and have done away with prevailing wage. I encourage you to Google the subject and see for yourself how detrimental prevailing wage is.

As for Breen’s claim that the minimum wage will be eliminated, there’s no way that’ll happen (nor am I advocating it), but I sincerely hope that every state will become a right-to-work state. Prevailing-wage requirements, unions, and non-right-to-work states are all forms of welfare, and they undermine free enterprise and good work ethics. As a result, right-to-work states have lower unemployment and lower costs of living (according to the Economic Policy Institute, 2009).

I would challenge any union advocate to try owning his own business that has to deal with unions. I’ll bet money that his attitude toward unions will change quickly.

Adams is a resident of Whitefish.