“Unions invariably are about protecting its leadership and not about protecting its rank-and-file workers. Workers buy into the short-term promises that union leadership offers, but they fail to comprehend the long-term costs of these short-term gains until it’s too late. Yes, there are instances where a firm’s management fails to perceive its relationship with its employees as a team effort. But this problem is far more prevalent in the reverse direction. Too many employees fail to grasp that the viability of their employment with a firm is dependent on the firm’s viability, and that their pay is tied to the firm’s profitability”. –Mark Steckbeck, economics professor at Hillsdale College, explaining why Unions Fail
I’m going to have to disagree (a little) with your quote of the day. Unions might not be as they once were, but they are still vital to Michigan’s economy. The unions have led the way for prevailing wages and medical insurance for their members. Isn’t that good for everyone? More money for workers and their families, more purchasing power for the US economy.
Unions undoubtably help the members of unions, there is no denying that, they especially help the ones with the most seniority.
But as Bastiat would say, you have to look at the seen and the unseen. So the question to ask here is at whose expense? And the more you dig deeper, you will see that these unions, and union members, benefit at the expense of the really poor, the less educated and less experienced, since they both now A. have less work to choose from and B. Their wages are driven down by the unions overarching power.
And this is without even bringing into the picture what unions do to their companies, and the effects they have on losing employers. For example, take the airline industry, the auto industry, and the supermarket industry, three industries that probably represent more union members than all other private industries, and what is a common theme behind all of these industries? They are all having serious financial troubles, the airline industry, for example, might go bankrupt. The automotive industry is losing customers to Japanese automakers time and time again. And of course you remember the recent long strike the supermarkets had…In other words, while unions may be good in a very very limited context, in the usual day to day activities, they do more harm than good, especially to the poorest members of society.
I explained this all in greater detail here.