Union pays workers minimum wage to protest union workers getting paid minimum wage

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Organized labor’s point of contention with large businesses is that they are greedy and self-interested. They lambast the capitalist system for marginalizing workers so a few CEOs can spend summers in Nantucket. Within this system, unions serve as advocates for workers promising higher wages and benefits, so they claim. Debunking this narrative is a humorous five minute segment from the Daily Show which illustrates what most of the public has come to accept: unions are furiously interested in the preservation of the union, not the condition of its workers.

Exemplifying this axiom is a Nevada union, UFCW Local 711, which is paying non-union workers minimum wage and zero benefits to picket a local Walmart. Unions are paying workers minimum wage to protest union member’s getting paid minimum wage. Oh, the irony. 

A more thorough analysis of the UFCW Local 711 reveals that the union spent $250,000 on “picket line labor” in 2009.  That’s a lot of money, a lot of money that could have been returned to workers who are undoubtedly experiencing hardship during the economic downturn.

Watch as unions employ the same business practices they rail against.