Labor Day is a good time to reflect on the state of unions in the United States. Relatively few workers in private industry and commerce are today unionized. The main locus of American unionized workers is among public employees, including K-12 teachers.
Public employees have found unions to be particularly useful in generating leverage for richer salaries and pensions, and more protected working conditions. And public jobs, unlike private ones, generally cannot be moved to jurisdictions where conditions are less favorable to unions. The latter are typically right-to-work states.
Public workers are one of two major sources of financial support for Democrats running for office. The other source being those wealthy who feel their wealth was unearned or who rely on illegal immigrants for labor.
Public workers have the often-excessive protections that civil service regulations provide, as well as a major political party in their debt. In high tax states like California and New York, where the public unions' Democrat allies dominate state and local governments, public jobs are the best lower and mid-level jobs around. In low tax red states like Texas, not so much.
Whether or not unions are relevant to your life, have a great Labor Day.
