This article was co-written with Lindsey DePasse.
Schadenfreude – noun, German: pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune.
One takes a certain Germanic pleasure in seeing the totalitarian fires lit by liberal authorities consuming their own houses.
Liberal thought and speech codes instituted by academic authorities are now blowing up in those very authorities’ faces. Meanwhile, rigid feminist orthodoxy is now ensnaring the first woman to plausibly run for President of the United States.
Another delicious example: Gawker, the infamous purveyor of salacious left-wing diatribes, has been unionized and now faces the entirely predictable consequences of that – a strike.
Last summer, Gawker Media was unionized by the Writers Guild of America, East, a union that represents editors and writers across a wide spectrum – print journalists, screenwriters, etc.
The decision of Gawker staff to join was significant, being among the first of the so-called “new media” companies to fall to the union hordes. Other new media conglomerates, including Salon and The Huffington Post, have since done the same.
This week the interwebs were set abuzz with the rumor that the new unionized Gawkers would stage a brief strike over lunch sometime soon. Word was they wanted the sites to go dark over a two-hour stretch in the middle of the day as a way to pressure management to make concessions regarding wages, working conditions, or both.
(Center for Worker Freedom inquiries to the union regarding the possibility of such a strike were met by a swift and stern, “no comment.”)
Organizing new media companies has been a long-sought goal for labor leaders as a way of ensnaring the Millennial workers that have proven elusive for them: As detailed by the Center for Worker Freedom’s Paige Halper, workers aged 16 to 24 have notably low unionization rates, rates that have declined significantly over the last two decades.
Part of the reason for that, as Ms. Halper explains, is that young workers gravitate towards newer sectors like tech start-ups and communications (including web-based businesses) that have been hard for labor leaders to capture for a variety of reasons. Indeed these types of jobs have things in common, including high turnover and odd hours, with food service, another sector that has proven difficult for unions to organize.
The shared economy, exemplified by companies like Uber and Airbnb, is another target for labor leaders. These jobs also attract many younger workers who are drawn to the freedom and flexibility they offer.
But freedom and flexibility are the antithesis of organized labor. Union contracts are one-size fits all, and unless you live in a right-to-work state, it’s one-size that must fit all – workers have no choice but to join and pay. Hence the concerted efforts by organized labor and their paid lackeys in government to crush this new business model.
Airbnb, for example has come under attack by a group called Share Better, launched with help from the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council (AFL-CIO), “affordable housing” advocates, and elected officials. They argue that the company violates tenant laws with its creative short-term housing facilitation. Share Better has already spent millions of dollars on anti-Airbnb campaigns in San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere.
Of course the irony that is entirely lost on liberals and labor leaders is that attacking companies, like Gawker and Uber, will inevitably lead to fewer opportunities for the one segment of the population they are greedy to get: Millennials.
Our labor law is a relic of the early 20th century, when workers stayed in one job and in once place most of their lives. Young people in the 21st century live in a different universe altogether. The writers at Gawker may have signed up for a union because it was the cool thing to do, but they will soon learn:
A snake will only eat its own tail if it has already consumed everything else.
Matt Patterson is Executive Director, Center for Worker Freedom; Ms. DePasse is an associate at CWF.