Searching For Truth

[The_Field_Ager]

thank you Papist for posting the perfect data varifying that the decline of unions has depressed middle class income in the private sector.

 

 

Union decline began long before the middle-class decline:

 

 

Union membership certainly dropped sharply in the 1970s, the period when some argue things went south for the middle class. But the unions’ decline started well before that. Union density peaked during World War II and began falling significantly in the mid-1950s. Between 1954 and 1970, the proportion of workers belonging to unions fell by one-fourth. It has continued to fall ever since.

No one remembers the 1950s and 1960s as challenging for the middle class. Americans of all income levels prospered then, even as unions contracted. Union strength matters little for workers outside of unions.

This should not be surprising. Unions operate as legal labor cartels. They try to control the supply of labor in an industry so they can drive up its price — wages. Union members benefit, but those costs get passed on as higher prices. The price hikes make non-union consumers poorer. They also (unsurprisingly) reduce sales. Lower sales mean fewer jobs in that industry. Unions, like all cartels, benefit their members at the cost of greater losses to the rest of society.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/12/18/the-argument-that-most-workers-are-better-off-without-unions/

 

Edited February 15, 2015 by Papist

[wildcat junkie]

Trade Unions and Nazi Germany

When Hitler came to power in January 1933, he saw trade unions as exercising more power over the workers than he could. Therefore, trade unions were seen as a challenge to be dispensed with. Hitler knew that he needed the workers to be on his side but he could not allow trade unions to exert the potential power they had. Therefore, trade unions were banned in Nazi Germany and the state took over the role of looking after the working class.

 

 

 

Just months after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, he took the decision to end trade unions in Nazi Germany. On May 2nd, 1933, police units occupied all trade unions headquarters and union officials and leaders were arrested. The funds that belonged to the trade unions – effectively this was workers money – were confiscated. However, Hitler had to be careful. He had only been in power for a few months and there were many members of the working class he had to deal with. If the working class movement in Germany organised itself, it would have presented the new Chancellor with a lot of major issues that would have to be dealt with. Removing trade union leaders helped this but it did not fully guarantee that the working class would ‘behave’ itself. Hitler had to offer the workers something more. Hitler announced that the German Labour Force, headed by Robert Ley, would replace all trade unions and would look after the working class. The title was chosen carefully. The new organisation was deliberately cloaked in patriotism, as it was now a German entity as was seen in its title. The working class was now a ‘labour force’. The Nazi Party did all that it could to ensure the workers felt that they were better off under the guidance of the Nazi Party via the German Labour Front."

 

 

TRADE UNIONS & NAZI GERMANY

 

"Right to work" is a term that is cloaked in patriotism.