Unions Pushing Their Luck

Union membership has been declining in this country for quite some time. However, union leaders placed hope in President Obama (as so many have) that he would help usher in a union resurgence. The execrable "card check" bill pending in Congress is one potential avenue. Another is the sweet deal Obama gave auto unions, at the expense of bondholders, in the GM bailout. However, actions the unions, which are seen by many as only interested in stumping for Democrats and protecting incompetent workers, have taken lately should threaten any traction they may be gaining. Here are three stories:

• "Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts." The union wants all teachers to share this money, not just the good ones, which defeats the entire purpose of a bonus.

• "In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park. Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union." The union would prefer that government employees do this work, not some punk kid. The union leader who raised hell about the Eagle Scout was forced to resign, though, so some sanity is prevailing.

• In New York City, 700 teachers get paid to do nothing while they wait for their disciplinary cases to be heard. Unions have worked to make it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers.
  

This is the kind of stuff that hurts one's credibility quite quickly. One thing I will compliment Obama for is that, contrary to his support for other unions, Obama has been making a serious effort to reform public schools, and doing so in ways that unions have long opposed. This includes increasing charter schools and basing teacher performance ratings on student results and test data. The egregious record of teachers' unions, which is probably more indefensible than that of any other unions, is likely a factor in Obama's willingness to defy them. That being the case, I say keep up the craziness, unions.