The disastrous effect of unions on some of the most important sectors of the American economy cannot be overstated. Unions have destroyed the automobile industry, making it non-competitive while lowering product quality. They have fostered criminality in fire and police departments, allowing defunding movements to gain support by protecting members who deserve to be fired and, in some cases, prosecuted. They are now making groceries unaffordable for many Americans, as they extort absurdly high wages out of supermarket chains for work that should be performed by high school students and not heads of households.

The worst example of unions destroying an industry is in public education. The national teachers union, led by its president Randi Weingarten, supported national school closures and the masking of children for two years between 2020 and 2022. The head of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) teachers union, Cecily Myart Cruz, successfully kept teachers of 600,000 LA students off work during this time while simultaneously negotiating a 21% pay raise in 2022. These same teachers had only just returned to work at the end of last year when they went on strike yet again this spring, demanding (and receiving) yet another 21% pay raise. LA teachers now make over $100,000 per year plus benefits, in addition to a pension that is the envy of every privately employed adult, while working only nine months out of the year (during years that they work at all). This, of course, during a period of the worst academic outcomes for students in decades. Where else can an entire sector of employees fail so miserably yet continue to be so richly rewarded?

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