Labor leaders should seize this chance to evolve

Dave Newton, Las Vegas

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 | 2:02 a.m.

It will be interesting to see if the current pressure on public unions drags union leaders kicking and screaming out of the 1950s.

I see a lot of value in unions, but I think much of what they do is counterproductive. Protecting incompetent employees, compensation policies that offer no reward for excellence, fighting productivity increases from restructuring jobs, and resisting innovation may save a few jobs in the short term, but they don’t serve membership’s best interests in the long term, when companies may close, move or outsource jobs.

Despite experiencing decades of declining private sector membership, union leaders seem unwilling to adapt their approach to current situations.

Instead of finding ways to be more attractive to members and less unattractive to employers, their strategy has been to find new ways to coerce people to join (i.e., corporate campaigns and the Employee Free Choice Act) and to spend millions on political campaigns that could have been spent in ways that directly benefit their members.

As a result, union growth has been limited to the public sector, where the lack of both competition and management accountability allowed their counterproductive policies to go unchecked. But the financial crisis has put a sudden and jarring end to that.

Ultimately, America’s prosperity depends on its competitiveness in the global marketplace. Unions won’t grow again until today’s labor leaders re-engineer unions to meet the needs of today’s workers, which includes supporting the success of their employers. It would be great for our country if this crisis spurs unions to evolve in ways that help both union members and their employers become more effective and productive.