This one is by UC Santa Barbara professor Nelson Lichtenstein, “The Long History of Labor Bashing.”

Trouble is, I have never heard any politician “bash” people who work. Now, Obama disagreed with Joe the Plumber, but did not as I recall “bash” him. Ronald Reagan fired the PATCO strikers who walked off the job in violation of their contracts, but he did not “bash” air-traffic controllers generally, nor any other workers.

What Lichtenstein calls “labor bashing” is actually criticism of the excessive power and privileges that have been given to union officials. The right-to-work movement, for example — a target of his — is not anti-labor or even anti-union. In fact, it originated with railroad union workers who objected to a law that made their union membership mandatory rather than voluntary. Right-to-work statutes cannot prevent any group of workers from forming a union, but simply allow those who don’t think it worth supporting the freedom to refuse to pay without being fired. Are there any instances where a union has collapsed because too many workers decided to stop paying dues? I know of no such case, but if it has happened, doesn’t that tell you that the union, after being certified, proved to be ineffectual or corrupt?

People like Lichtenstein are devoted to a coercive model of unionization. That model has driven prominent companies out of business and has squandered the dues and pensions of many workers. All other private organizations must allow people to drop out when they decide that the organization is not in their interests; labor unions alone demand that everyone be kept in the fold, often threatening those who express dissent.

Again, too bad that Chronicle Review publishes sludge like this.