I’ve written before that in general, I support labor unions in their attempts at protecting workers from corporate exploitation and capitalist abuses. That means advocating for fair wages, safe working conditions, decent health benefits, adequate time off, family leave with job security, child care provisions, etc.

However, I’ve also said that I do not support labor unions when they blindly support the status quo (or “how things have always been done"), or when they are used by lazy and incompetent workers to protect their jobs, or when they themselves engage in blatant examples of paternalism, corruption, and abuse.

With that in mind, the New York Times offers the latest example of labor union abuse: having children of members on union payrolls:

Union longshoremen here have been placing children as young as 2 years old on their payroll for years in a scheme to secure jobs and higher salaries for members’ children when they reach working age, the state attorney general said Thursday.

The scheme guaranteed that the salaries of workers placed on the payroll as children were inflated, as employees are paid hourly wages that increase with seniority. . .

“This has been going on for generations, and our understanding is that it’s part of the culture,” [MA Attorney General] Mr. Reilly said. “The purpose is to defraud the public and make sure you keep the job in your family and not extend the opportunity to other people.”

Nice going . . . real nice. And labor unions wonder why they have been losing members and political power for the last few decades, and more important, why national public opinion has turned against them in that period of time as well? Well, it’s right under your noses you idiots, and you are the ones who have been hanging your own necks all these years.

News like this does nothing but reinforce the negative image that many people have of labor unions and makes me feel ashamed to be a union supporter. But it also makes me support recent efforts to change the leadership and direction of the labor union movement even more.