Unions - Necessary Evils or Just Evil

Byron York highlights here the ongoing issue of the role of unions in the runaway costs driving all government budgets deeply into the red.  The US Postal Service now runs a deficit of 7 billion per year and is headed to a tripling of that number over the next ten years.  Once again the influence of unions is paramount in this debacle, as York explains.

ADDED:  The perspective of Mickey Kaus, candidate for US Senate in the current California democrat party primary, on the subject of unions is here.  Agree with Kaus or not on the idea that unions were once useful and helpful, he nevertheless has an interesting perspective on their status now, especially the public unions.  This man, a democrat, makes sense and would probably be a reasonable choice as a replacement for Barbara Boxer, who should be sent the island of Elba where she should be forced to commune with Napoleon's ghost every day until she perishes.

ADDED:  George Will brings to bear his considerable analytic skills here in a piece about the city of Los Angeles and it former SEIU and teacher's union organizer/mayor, Villagrosa.  Villagrosa added 5,000 new employees to the city rolls in his first term and is now facing the issue of bankruptcy, plain and simple.  It will be interesting to see how he, as a former organizer, is able to deal with the unions that now strangle the economy of the city and the state of California.  Greece move over, here comes L.A. and the state of California only things will be much worse since California has nearly ten times the population of Greece.  BTW, attendance is down at Dodge Stadium, which has been sold out in previous years and in fact had growing attendance for the previous decade through winning and losing seasons.  Wonder how many of those 10, 15-million dollar annual contracts they'll be able to afford as time goes on.

ADDED:  It's always encouraging to see liberals "get the picture" as Mortimor Zuckerman, owner of US News and World Report does in this editorialabout the runaway costs resulting from runaway pubic unions.

ADDED: 5/28/10.  Now here's a thought:  How about unions for college professors?  A thought, by the way, that is being promoted at the U of Wisconsin these days.  The thought is taken on here by John F. Witte, a professor at U of Wisconsin who while he is supportive of unions for blue collar and some service workers, thinks the idea of a union for university profs would destroy the competitive environment necessary to weed out those who are not up to the demands required of those who are granted tenure.  Fifty percent of all aspirants are denied tenure.  Since professor Witte is generally supportive of unions for blue collar workers, I wonder how he would address the fact that unionized companies, over the years, appear to have failed much more often than non-unionized companies, witness unionized GM versus non-unionized Japanese and European US transplants.

ADDED: 6/2710.  This post by Powerline is guaranteed to get your blood boiling.