PAT(CO) Logic
5 August 2006
Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Charles Whalen argues that the failed 1981 PATCO strike "was a watershed" that still casts "a long, dark shadow" ("Echoes of a Broken Strike," Aug. 5). Among the pieces of evidence he cites to support his claim is the fact that since the early 1980s the percentage of American workers who belong to labor unions has fallen from 20.1 to 12.5.
True. But this decline in union membership began nearly thirty years before the PATCO strike. Union membership (as a percent of workers) peaked, at 36 percent, in 1953. It has steadily declined ever since. Indeed, data* from the union-funded Economic Policy Institute show that the PATCO strike did nothing even to accelerate (much less to spark) this trend.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_05051999
Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
Charles Whalen argues that the failed 1981 PATCO strike "was a watershed" that still casts "a long, dark shadow" ("Echoes of a Broken Strike," Aug. 5). Among the pieces of evidence he cites to support his claim is the fact that since the early 1980s the percentage of American workers who belong to labor unions has fallen from 20.1 to 12.5.
True. But this decline in union membership began nearly thirty years before the PATCO strike. Union membership (as a percent of workers) peaked, at 36 percent, in 1953. It has steadily declined ever since. Indeed, data* from the union-funded Economic Policy Institute show that the PATCO strike did nothing even to accelerate (much less to spark) this trend.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_05051999
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Wednesday April 25, 2007 at 5:27pm