“So, you won’t join the Union huh?”

Good day all. I saw this story regarding union retaliation against people who won’t join. It isn’t the old style form of retaliation, where they would beat you nearly to death. This is an attempt at public shaming.

For the last several decades, Private sector unions have been slowly dying. A number of states have passed what are called “Right to work” laws. These laws took away the various unions ability to force people to join if they wanted to have a job. Whenever a state passed a right to work law, there was a rush to the doors by union members who couldn’t wait to get out from under the union’s thumb. This hit the unions right in the wallets as they lost the ability to steal money from a worker’s paycheck. Now, the UAW has come up with another way to harass workers who won’t join. Here are the details from the Washington Free Beacon:

The Kansas chapter of the United Auto Workers union is using its website to draw attention to GM workers who choose not to pay union dues. UAW Local 31 dedicates an entire page of its website to listing the names and work stations of employees who have opted to exercise their rights not to be in the union. UAW Local 31 lists nearly 30 workers at the Fairfax, Kansas GM plant who are not in the union. The “Scab List” is published under the union website’s “Important Information” section.

Hmm, calling someone who won’t join a union a scab? As I recall, that insult was thrown at people who crossed union picket lines to do the jobs they wouldn’t unless paid ridiculous amounts of money. I wasn’t aware that now a scab was someone who just didn’t want to be in a union in the first place.

Glenn Taubmann, a lawyer at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, said that scab lists are used to pressure workers into joining the union. The use of their personal information and where they can be found in the plant make them easy targets for harassment and intimidation.

“It comes as no surprise that unions in right to work states engage in all sorts of harassment and pressure tactics against independent-minded workers,” he said. “The ugly truth is that once UAW bosses get into power, they will not tolerate any worker who refused to ‘voluntarily’ join and pay dues. Their view of “voluntary” unionism is an iron fist against anyone who dissents.”

Unions have a long history of threats, intimidation and violence against anyone who opposes them. During the 2010 midterms, when the Tea party was growing, the unions literally sent out thugs to try and intimidate the protestors into going away. There were one or two instances where union thugs, attacked Tea party supporters. The Tea Party groups decided to fight fire with fire and showed up at the union locals armed and held a rally against that particular union. Funny thing. All the physical attacks stopped after that. (Lawful protests continued of course)

Now the UAW, (United Auto Workers), pretty much ran Detroit up until recently. We can see the results of their action today. Detroit looks like a bombed out city in many areas, is bankrupt and has lost more than half their population in the last 20 years. And as for the automakers? The moved out to states where they didn’t have to deal with Union extortion.

The UAW grew to become one of the most powerful and largest unions in America during the 20th Century thanks to coercive unionism in Detroit. The system forced all American autoworkers to pay dues as a condition of employment. However, automakers began migrating to right to work states to capitalize on cheaper labor costs. Union’s are increasingly aggressive about targeting those who exercise their right to opt out of the union.

The unions are dying and they know it. The need for unions to protect workers ended decades ago. When unionism started back in the 19^th century, it was in response to the big conglomerates that were literally treating the workers as serfs. Back then, a lot of workers couldn’t read, or were immigrants and didn’t speak English, either well or at all. This made them easy targets for the companies of the day. However, in the 20^th century, a number of laws pushed by the unions to protect workers were passed. Workers, especially after World War Two, became far better educated.

In the last 20-30 years, union members began to see that the Union chiefs didn’t actually support what the rank and file wanted. When the chance came for them to work for a company that didn’t have a union in place for basically the same wages and benefits, the signed on. Right off the bat, they saw an increase in their paychecks when the dues they used to have to pay weren’t being deducted. The workers were also happy that their money wasn’t being used for political causes they never supported. The upshot is the unions are slowly going bust and the people running the unions are in danger of losing their huge salaries and gold plated benefits. They will do anything to stop this.

The Kansas scab list is the second one to pop up in right to work states. A scab list was recently distributed at a Tennessee GM plant, as the Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.

“The following individuals are NON-dues paying workers. They have chosen to STOP paying Union Dues and still reap the rewards of your negotiated benefits,” the Tennessee “Scab Report” said. “If you work near one of these people listed please explain the importance of Solidarity and the power of collective bargaining.”

The union is denying this is meant to intimidate nonunion workers. They claim it is simply a means to have a dialog with people who don’t want to be in the union. Sure, and I have a bridge in the Everglades I want to look at.

One longtime GM worker whose name appeared on that list reported that he was soon approached by a number of union members who engaged in harassment name-calling, rather than educational discourse. The message, the worker said, was clear.

“It’s all about money to the UAW. They want you to just keep your mouth shut, pay dues, and go along,” the Tennessee worker said.

That sounds a lot like the Democrat and Republican party committees as well. The difference being that the two political parties won’t threaten your family if you don’t send in donations. Well, the Democrats have been known to threaten businesses that didn’t businesses that didn’t pay “Vigorish” to the Party. There is a big difference these days. If a union thug tries to intimidate or outright threaten a non-member, there is a better then even chance that the thug is going to end up in the hospital, or the morgue after getting shot. The days of mandatory unionism are coming to an end, and unless the unions undergo major internal changes, they are going to go the way of the dinosaur.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~