UNIONS: Organized labor plays a vital role | Tacoma News Tribune

Re: “Freedom Foundation targets unions” (TNT, 10-5).

Warning: The Freedom Foundation seeks freedom for the few. Its campaign to further reduce the power of labor unions makes it a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The group claims that limiting the power of unions to collect dues from those who benefit from their power to negotiate wages and work conditions is a service to those in the work force.

History documents clearly that where the organized power of labor is nonexistent or weak, all effective economic and political power becomes concentrated in the hands of well-organized employers. This means that they have the power to determine who works, for what hours and for what pay.

That economic power is enormous, and workers are at its mercy unless they too are equally well organized.

Employers and workers can work together for the common good. But human nature being what it is, that is unlikely to happen unless economic and political power is fairly distributed between them. That is why the right to organize needs to be equally shared: every right of business to organize to further its own interests needs to be fully available, protected and effective for labor.