Analyzing America: Organized Labor

Times are not only tough for public sector unions. Private sector unions have been losing ground for the past several decades. Of course, the big battles raging now are against state and local government workers. States like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Idaho have passed or are in the process of passing legislation that strips public workers of a good deal of their collective bargaining rights.

While unions and their supporters continue to fight against these draconian measures, the day may soon dawn when they realize they have lost. If it comes to that, then I think we could easily state that organized labor will find itself suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a anxiety disorder that develops after a severe traumatic event or experience. Several distressing symptoms are common in the person with PTSD, including Psychic numbing, emotion anesthesia, increased arousal, or unwanted re-experiencing of the trauma. These symptoms can effect any sex or age group. Anxiety, irritability, and depression are also common in people who have PTSD. People with PTSD have a diminished ability to experience emotion, including tenderness or intimacy. There may be problems falling or staying asleep. A person with PTSD will avoid any reminders of the trauma but re-experiencing the event in dreams, nightmares, or painful memories are common. Some people will turn to drugs or alcohol to escape the pain of PTSD. While others may become suicidal or self-defeating.

It would be hard to argue that losing the ability to utilize hard-won collective bargaining rights in labor negotiations is not a traumatic event. Since ownership (or government) holds the vast majority of the cards anyway, union members will soon find they are nothing more than serfs in a new feudal landscape.

Needless to say, the best strategy for evading PTSD is not to create the trauma in the first place. Unfortunately, certain elements in our society will benefit greatly by manufacturing this kind of trauma and worse. So, it's hard for me to imagine that organized labor will be able to avoid acquiring PTSD.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.