By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
The lib labs over at Blue Jersey commemorated Labor Day 2013 by taking a contrived shot at one of Save Jersey‘s favorite legislators, Asm. Jay Webber (R-Morris).
The Assemblyman took a moment away from his large family on Labor Day to *gasp!* thank his legislative and law office employees for their hard work in a Facebook post.
Blue Jersey‘s blogger lamented that he didn’t thank organized labor instead.
Jay doesn’t have any union employees. In fact, precious few American employers do these days…
American union membership (defined as those who are members of a union or are represented by one) reached historic lows in 2012; we haven’t had so few “union” households in the United States since the 1930s. New Jersey is a notable exception to the national trend. We have less union members here, too, than a few decades ago, but our decline has been less precipitous. Union participation in New Jersey held steady at 16.1% in 2011 and 2012. Nationally, union membership fell to 11.3% in 2012, down from 11.8% in 2012.
Whether there’s a correlation between New Jersey’s higher-than-normal union participation rate and New Jersey’s higher-than-average unemployment rate is a topic for another post, Save Jerseyans… *cough* prevailing wage *cough*.
Excuse me, folks! I had a little bit of logic stuck in my throat.
Suffice it to say for now, Asm. Webber is a true gentlemen who would thank anyone who labored for him, union-affiliated or not. He’s simply like most employers who, like their employees, no longer see the utility in “collective bargaining” (def. treating all employees as if they produce/work/behave the same) within the confines of a free market. It’s not a controversial notion anywhere save for New Jersey…
