nailheadtom, on Jennifer Rubin:

BIG LABOR?

That’s like “big oil”. Where’s “little oil” ? Or “little labor”? Massive corporations with thousands of organized employees couldn’t have anything but “big labor”. And if it’s a possibility that the supposed intransigence of “big labor”, like the UAW, will cause the extinction of the Big 3, wouldn’t that be a good thing, since the sinking of the auto makers’ fleet would include the UAW as well? Then a completely unorganized workforce at new companies could make U.S. autos for, well, ideally at minimum wage with no benefits. Isn’t that the real goal of private sector business?

The UAW controversy is the consummate straw man. All car companies, union or not, have recorded plunging sales figures. There is an overcapacity in the auto industry. If there is a union problem, it’s not with the UAW. No one is forced to purchase an automobile produced by union labor. The problem is public sector labor, which every taxpayer is forced to finance at all times. Public sector labor enjoys union representation at a rate 5 times that of private industry. Almost 36% of government employees at all levels work under union contracts. Only 7.5% of private employees do. The most unionized people in the country are teachers, cops and firemen, employees whose wages, benefits and retirement are by paid by the citizen no matter what kind of car he drives. If there is a “big labor” problem, it begins at the capitol and city hall, not at an auto plant.