Tyranny of Trade Unions

Every day there is a dissertation upon the “tyranny of trade unions.” Heart- breaking episodes are used to show how trade unions have curtailed the natural rights of individuals. Now the fact is trade unions have made freemen out of millions of men who were dangerously close to the state of peonage before the trade unions were formed. How many working men were compelled by threats of discharge to vote against their convictions prior to joining their union? How many were free to spend their wages where they pleased? How many enjoyed the protection of law to life and limb? The unimpeachable fact is that the trade unions have stood men on their feet, taught them their rights under the law, made them free in every sense of the word. Of course they have surrendered some worse than useless individual rights, but they have gained immeasurably in tangible freedom. No one knows this better than those who have tried individualism and collectivism. It is useless to tell a man he is better off when “free” to become prey of organized capital, when can actually be free by joining an organization of his fellows. He will laugh at the idea that the union which obtains for him a living wage, sanitary conditions under which to work, and cultivates friendly relations with his employer has made a slave of him. He knows the manifold blessings his union has conferred upon him and would not exchange any fictitious “freedom” for the great boon of liberty his union gives him.

-Mine Workers Journal, Seattle Union Record, December 12, 1903