Union Dues: We’re All Paying!

It’s no secret that labor unions are on their way out of the American marketplace … in fact, were it not for public (i.e. taxpayer-funded) employee unions, they’d be almost completely out of business.

Once representing 33.7% of the private sector workforce, today only 7.8% of non-government workers are unionized. By contrast, a whopping 36.5% of the public sector is unionized (up from 9.8% back in 1940).

Needless to say, there’s a trend at work here.

The economy is clearly rejecting unionism (i.e. Boeing), while government growth has become its one and only saving grace.  Indeed, one of the last bastions of unionism in the American private sector – i.e. the automotive industry -  took over $60 billion in bailout money over the past year.

Which means we may have to adjust those “taxpayer-funded” percentages in the future.

Anyway, unions know that their days are numbered, which is why they went all out in the last election cycle – spending $100 million to support U.S. President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.  Unions also provided extensive voter registration and mobilization support, as well as 450,000 campaign “volunteers.”

Now it’s payback time – and we’re not just referring to Obama’s reversal of Bush-era disclosure requirements for labor leaders (a decision which will re-open the door to untold waste and corruption).

This is much, much bigger than that …

One of the dirty, not-so-little secrets of the current debate over health care – one which Obamacare opponents have inexplicably (and inexcusably) failed to capitalize upon – is the extent to which labor unions are being bailed out by the current socialized medicine proposals working their way through Congress.

Take the $10 billion in the House “Obamacare” bill that would go directly toward bailing out insolvent union health care plans, for example.

At the same time Obama and Congressional Democrats are dumping unprecedented billions into these union slush funds, they are removing the only mechanism by which government can hold their administrators accountable.

Even this massive influx of cash won’t be enough to keep the unions going, however.

All those years of declining membership rolls require new sources of sustained income, which is why both versions of the “health care” bill contain “reimbursement” provisions that would force potentially hundreds of thousands of employees into unions.

That could mean as much as $2 billion annually to organized labor.

Forget “card check.”

The real union payoff is tucked into Obamacare.