Academic

IN THE L.A. TIMES: MICKEY KAUS ON DEMOCRATS AND UNIONS. ?Do you have to love labor unions to be a ?

By Glenn Reynolds

IN THE L.A. TIMES: MICKEY KAUS ON DEMOCRATS AND UNIONS. “Do you have to love labor unions to be a good Democrat? That was the question raised last year by the unpopular bailouts of unionized Detroit automakers. It’s been raised again this year by California’s budget crisis, created at least in part by generous pensions for unionized public employees. I think the answer is no. It’s time for Democrats, even liberal Democrats, to start looking at unions and unionism with deep skepticism. . . . Keep in mind that Detroit’s union, the United Auto Workers, is one of our best. It’s democratic. It’s not corrupt. Its leadership has often been visionary. Yet working within our archaic union system, it still helped bring our greatest industry to its knees. And the taxpayers were stuck with the bill for bailing it out, while UAW members didn’t even take a cut of $1 an hour in their $28-an-hour basic pay. How many Californians would like $27-an-hour manufacturing jobs? Actually, there was a good auto factory in California, the NUMMI plant in Fremont. It got sucked under when GM went broke. Those 4,500 jobs are gone.”

UPDATE: Will Collier corrects Kevin Drum. Is ignorance about the South a requirement for liberal blogging gigs?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 04, 2010 (boomark / email).