> The problem is that any particular example of union
> corruption is used to stand in for the whole union movement,
> even as pervasive corporate crime is
> treated as "bad eggs" in a basically sound system. And it
> pisses me off to
> no end when someone like Fitch just feeds the union
> corruption meme without context.
That may answer the mob control/corruption charge, but it does not address his more serious charge of structural problems, especially local fragmentation - which is not limited to unions, schools and municipalities suffer from the same problem, no? If I understand Fitch correctly, he argues that the system of local fragmentation is a serious obstacle to union organization, yet individual locals have little incentive to reform that system, because that may involve giving up some of the benefits (even if meager) which they have from occupying their local "niches." This argument is structural and does not logically depend on individual corruption or even more widely spread mob control charges. It is essentially a variant of the prisoner's dilemma - prisoners would certainly benefit as a group if they cooperated, yet each one in that group does not want to risk his own ass for the sake of that collective benefit.
Wojtek