Strength of Public Sector Unions: 'Crazy'?

At the New York Times today, columnists David Brooks and Gail Collins had a discussion about yesterday's primary elections, touching on the failure of labor unions to meet their goal of mounting a challenge from the left to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. Along the way, Brooks and Collins raised the issue of the ascendance in the labor movement of unions representing government employees.

"The unions are becoming a public sector lobbying arm," Brooks said. Collins piled on:

I'm not comfortable with a situation in which the only unions that continue to flourish are the ones for public employees. It's crazy that it's easier to create a union for high school principals than underpaid slaughterhouse workers or chicken-pluckers. The people who most need the benefits of unionization are the ones that have the hardest time getting it.