By Bob Guzzardi and Dr. Bob Sklaroff
Union Organizers “sent a message” to small businesses throughout the Delaware Valley…and beyond…when a competitive contractor building a $3.5 million Quaker Meeting House in Chestnut Hill was told: “Unionize…or else!”
Lt. George McClay of Northwest Detectives said that he was certain the small Quaker building on East Mermaid Lane was targeted for arson because it is being built with nonunion labor.
This tried-and-true mob-tactic works. The union-goon torches equipment valued at half-million dollars. And the small business gets the message. Hire union and your property is safe. Don’t hire union…well. The Mob calls it “protection”; law enforcement calls it a “racket.”
And this violence occurred in our own neighborhood. If they can do it to one of us, they can do it to any of us. If we business people are not scared, then we deserve what happens to us.
Contractors are opposed by a well-funded Leviathan union-monopoly that forces workers to pay dues to get a family-sustaining job. Unions portray themselves as if engaged in a life-and-death struggle against capitalist exploitation of the little-guy, even as they target the little-guy with violence and—oh, by the way—prevent the little-guy who is black from getting a well-paid job.
In Philadelphia, the Black power-elite has sold-out its own people to the segregated unions which blatantly discriminate against Black workers, preventing them from being trained for very well-paid union jobs. In return for not challenging the segregated unions, Black political insiders get other contracts, political favoritism and, of course, welfare of all kinds.
Monopoly-control of labor means high salaries for union bosses, generous pay to unionized workers, but no work or menial work for those excluded; in Philadelphia, that means “Black people.” Particularly impacted are young Black men who, probably, have a better chance of going to Harvard than becoming union electricians.
It’s not just Consumers and Taxpayers who pay more for union- monopolies-at all income levels—because everyone suffers from a culture that perpetuates backroom deals that perpetuate poverty.
It is time Philadelphia’s Unions to embrace affirmative action.
For further information regarding what happened, read in both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News Inga Saffron’s excellent reporting:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20121229_Phila__police_tie_construction-site_arson_to_union_sabotage.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20121221_Accusations_fly_after_fire_at_Chestnut_Hill_Quaker_site.html
Mr. Guzzardi is a resident of Ardmore, Pa. while and Dr. Sklaroff lives in Abington.