Should the Unions Agree To Give Up Strikes?

What should a conservative of libertarian bent say about strikes? Obviously, to tell a man he cannot quit work either singly or in planned concert with his fellows is an infringement of personal liberty. It could be considered a contravention of the Thirteenth Amendment, which, despite the draft, is supposed to prohibit involuntary servitude. Professor Milton Friedman, who prizes consistency beyond most conservatives, would argue that the way to deal with strikes is to protect personal rights all across the board. Let the erring unions strike, he says, but enforce the law when it comes to confronting violence on the picket line and other forms of intimidation directed at employers who try to keep their factories running.

Professor Friedman is right, but. as we all know, the laws designed to keep union goons from maiming strikebreakers, making threatening telephone calls, and splashing paint on the homes and automobiles of scabs, are not going to be enforced. Once upon a time it was the Coal and Iron Police that could get away with murder. Today, with the blessing of the National Labor Relations Board and liberal opinion in general, the shoe is on the other foot. César Chavez’ United Farm Workers Union can spread palpable untruths about poison spray on grapes, and no law against secondary boycotts protects the supermarkets. The works of Professor Sylvester Petro provide us with a startling catalogue of union misdemeanors and felonies, 98 per cent of which, by any reasonable guess, go entirely unpunished.

JC

About the Author

John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

What should a conservative of libertarian bent say about strikes? Obviously, to tell a man he cannot quit work either singly or in planned concert with his fellows is an infringement of personal liberty. It could be considered a contravention of the Thirteenth Amendment, which, despite the draft, is supposed to prohibit involuntary servitude. Professor Milton Friedman, who prizes consistency beyond most conservatives, would argue that the way to deal with strikes is to protect personal rights all across the board. Let the erring unions strike, he says, but enforce the law when it comes to confronting violence on the picket line and other forms of intimidation directed at employers who try to keep their factories running.

Professor Friedman is right, but. as we all know, the laws designed to keep union goons from maiming strikebreakers, making threatening telephone calls, and splashing paint on the homes and automobiles of scabs, are not going to be enforced. Once upon a time it was the Coal and Iron Police that could get away with murder. Today, with the blessing of the National Labor Relations Board and liberal opinion in general, the shoe is on the other foot. César Chavez’ United Farm Workers Union can spread palpable untruths about poison spray on grapes, and no law against secondary boycotts protects the supermarkets. The works of Professor Sylvester Petro provide us with a startling catalogue of union misdemeanors and felonies, 98 per cent of which, by any reasonable guess, go entirely unpunished.