Trump Cards

Thomas Bray reports on the union movement:

It hasn't been the merriest of holiday seasons in Michigan. Recently Ford Motor Co. offered modest buyouts to 38,000 hourly employees, more than half its unionized work force in the U.S. General Motors Corp. and its former parts division, the now-bankrupt Delphi Co., did the same for 40,000 hourly workers, about a quarter of their union work forces. There is talk that Daimler will dump its Chrysler division.

All of which is another massive blow to what used to be called the "union movement." The United Auto Workers is down to slightly more than 500,000 members, compared to 1.5 million only two decades ago. Nor is it just a Michigan problem. Including public sector workers, unions now represent only about 12.5% of the U.S. work force, down from 20% in 1983 and about 35% 50 years ago.

The decline in union membership leveled off last year. "The good news is that the annual hemorrhaging of union membership slowed last year," confessed James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters. "And that's not really good news."

Where would unions be without coercion?