“When the 7-Eleven clerk in your neighborhood is tougher than you, it's time to get out,” said a business owner in St. Louis when his neighbor shot a would-be robber.
I'm feeling the same way about my neighborhood, because our local Starbucks' barista is seeking to form a union. Bradley Rohlf said that the prevailing wage of $15 per hour to brew and serve coffee was unacceptable; he wanted $24 per hour. Don't forget that baristas are tipped on top of their wages, usually an extra $10-20 per shift, which means that the barista is paid for nine hours when he only works eight hours.
Yet this cushy job in a tony neighborhood is so rough that Mr. Rohlf is demanding a union to push for amenities. What is really going on?
Union membership has been declining for decades (with the notable exceptions of teachers' unions and government unions). Union bosses realize that they must hook new, young members. Union dues are vitally important to funding the Democrat party and for pushing Leftist causes. So union drives are happening at companies that attract young workers: Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple — because the unions want the money. The union organizers are so desperate to form new unions that they are bribing Amazon workers with free marijuana!
This push for unions is not about providing benefits for the young employees, who tend to be transient at these companies, but all about unions finding new sources of income. Union dues are automatically deducted from the paycheck, just like taxes.
Just what are the benefits that unions provide to members?
- a union protects the slacker workers
- a union ensures that the last employee hired is the first to be laid off
- time served — never talent — is the only path to advancement in a union shop
- the union caps the wage that members can receive
Unions and socialism have a long history of collaboration. Like unions, socialism inhibits individual excellence and instead insists on conforming to the lowest common denominator. Like socialism, unions foment class divisions in order to retain power.
The teachers union has wrecked the education of children. Public-sector unions have ballooned the cost of government without adding benefits to taxpayers. Now the coffee shops and booksellers are infected with the union bug.