Should labor unions pay their protesters the wages and benefits that the unions demand of other employers? CEI labor policy attorney Vincent Vernuccio crashed a union protest in Washington, DC this week and questioned several people involved in the protest. The protesters – hired by a union, the Mid-Atlantic Region of Carpenters – appeared to not be compensated with the level of wages and benefits that the union itself demands of other employers – the protesters evidently lacked health insurance, for example (see 3:52).
Nor is it clear the protesters were union members (see 2:59). So, how could they even hope to benefit from any prospective wage or benefit concessions won from the business targeted by the protest? No one could (or would?) say what local union chapter they belonged to and seemed to even be confused by the question (see 1:28).
› View the video on YouTube, Unions hire non-union protesters?
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This kind of union hypocrisy is nothing new. Unions here in Tulsa have for years been hiring non-union people, including the homeless, to hold up protest banners in front of businesses they don't like. These guys, who are paid a fraction of union-demanded wages, stand outside all day with signs that say "Shame on [insert business]" in big orange letters. Seriously, every one of those signs looks exactly the same, complete with "Labor Dispute" printed at the corners of each sign. I see them all the time, especially at banks in midtown. They protested my university all throughout the last year and a half or so I spent there. Pathetic.
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