From the NY Times today:

With their allies controlling the White House and Congress, the nation’s labor unions should be making hay. Instead many unions are making war — largely with one another — in the biggest, nastiest surge of labor fratricide in decades...For the most part, the battles don’t involve grand philosophical differences, as many labor union disputes have in the past. Instead, they often reflect power struggles, with some unions jockeying to take others’ members at a time when unions are having a hard time gaining members at companies that are not organized.

The Service Employees International Union, union officials say, recently spent millions of dollars in California on organizers and a phone and mail campaign — in one fight to discourage workers from joining a rival health care union, and in another to urge hotel workers to quit their union and join the service employees. "The S.E.I.U. is trying to hijack our union," Mr. Wilhelm said. At the Unite Here convention last week, Mr. McEntee denounced the service employees for "piracy," and Vincent J. Giblin, president of the operating engineers, called Mr. Stern, of the service union, the "Darth Vader of the labor movement." ..."Every division in the labor movement seems to have Andy Stern’s fingerprints on it," said Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers. "Andy ought to start working for unity and not division."

So what did Mr. Vader have to say to that?

"If you look at the big issues facing labor, I think there’s a large amount of unity," said Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which is involved in much of the infighting.

Unity for?

"They need a united front when they go to Congress to get pro-union legislation through," said Charles B. Craver, a labor law professor at George Washington University.

Note that Professor Craver said pro-union legislation, not pro-worker or pro-growth legislation. Let's have a look those "big issues" (card check is really a non-issue albeit with real consequence):

Health Reform - What is needed is a reduction in costs and an expansion of coverage. What they want is government run health care.  Why?  Simple, "Currently, unions represent something over 36% of all public sector employees, including 42% of state and local government employees."  More government control equates to more union largesse. (See California and California and California)

Financial Regulatory Reform - What is needed is a flexible and dynamic regulatory system which can respond to an innovative market.  What they want is a system for bullying companies into accepting organizing.

Renewable Energy - What is needed is a massive expansion of renewable energy to replace any GHG emitting sources we take out of the system. What they want is the obstruction of any project that doesn't agree to unionized workers. And let's not even discuss Davis-Bacon (but if you want to).

Labor Reform? Trade? Education? Self-serving, self-serving, self-serving; and that's ok. There is nothing wrong with having and advancing a position which represents your interest - all sides should have a voice in the debate. But as Big Labor gathers at the White House next week, and continues their debt spending seeking political favors on Capitol Hill, our leaders need to understand that they are simply one of many interests, no more special than any other. Or maybe a little less special as reflected in this bit of sarcasm from Gramps964 on The Politico.

Its about time someone stood up for the working man and the labor unions. Until they are unfettered the US will not benefit from the labor movement like education has from the NEA, or the auto industry from the UAW or the steel industry from the United steel workers.