Unions Living in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones

LANSING —People who live in glass houses, the old saying goes, shouldn’t throw stones. There may be no more appropriate application of that than United Auto Workers Local 6000, where saying one thing and doing another has now been raised to an art form.

UAW Local 6000, the union that represents 21,000 state workers, has been on a rampage against privatization for years—regularly denouncing privatization of just about anything by any level of government even when it saves money and improves services.

Now comes the news that the UAW’s international office has had to take over the finances of Local 6000. The reasons? Misspent money, shoddy records, and the destruction of important financial documents, to name a few. This is a union that says we should not privatize because it might lead to corruption.