Page 355 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

A Patriot’s view of the history and direction of our Country

direct public and customer interactions. If workers at a coal mine or

automobile plant went on strike, the impact to the public and
consumers was unnoticed or essentially negligible at worst. One of

the most disruptive was transportation workers, also one of the
earliest unions. This would include truck drivers and delivery. The

‘Teamsters’ union was derived from workers who would drive a
team of horses for deliveries. This evolved into the nation’s largest

union. Like any business, unions needed more income base and
their income bases are workers. More workers meant infiltrating

those markets that interacted with the public consumers. If the
public consumer is impacted by a strike, surely the employer would

cede to union demands or risk significant losses of profits. I submit
this is where the unions began losing their support from the public

and their influential power. As the public began paying higher prices
for goods, due to strikes and union contracts (high wages, imbalance

of benefits – low healthcare premiums for high coverage), the
unions lost the support of consumers.

Unfortunately, unions became politicized, internally and
externally. The union leadership became hierarchical and more of

an oligarchy. The unions of today still have leadership roles passed
on to family members, more resembling a monarchy or organized

crime than a representative leadership. Unions also became more
involved in politics and using membership dues to influence politics.

Historically, and still today, unions spend a disproportionate amount

of membership dues on political lobbying compared to the other
services for members. Those funds and efforts are not paying off for
unions. Finally, unions began using member assets, such as

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