Good-Romney on Labor Unions

In No Apology, Mitt Romney makes some comments you wouldn't expect from him about labor unions and also delivers some pointed criticisms of poor corporate management.

Click here for all of David Frum’s blogposts on Mitt Romney’s “No Apology”.

Here's something you wouldn't expect Mitt Romney to say:

Not all unions adopt counterproductive attitudes. ... [I]n some cases, unions are a necessary check on excessively demanding, insensitive, or thoughtless employers.

Poor corporate management and excessive CEO compensation are capable of causing the kind of worker resentment that undermines hard, smart, effective work. While governor, I met with union workers at a plant in western Massachusetts that manufactured socket sets. These workers had been informed by their management that they had to agree to a pay cut or the facility would be closed. The union leaders understood that it was in their best interests to agree to the cuts rather than risk unemployment in a weak job market. But the fact that the company's CEO had received a reported $20 million bonus the prior year outraged these workers as it would have me had I been in their shoes. It was all they could talk about. The rank and file simply wouldn't surrender a large share of their wages when the CEO had been so selfish. (254)