Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

That's not our view. That's the finding of the National Labor Relations Board. In upholding an earlier ruling by an administrative law judge, the Board found that when workers in the Dallas branch of the left-leaning Acorn expressed interest in unionizing, management responded by giving them the old heave-ho. What makes this even more hypocritical is that Kimberly Olsen, the head of Acorn's Dallas operation, was at the time leading the charge for a Dallas "living wage" ordinance. The union in question, by the way, was the famed Wobblies: the International Workers of the World.

The ruling doesn't appear to have attracted any media attention, but it is available in the "Decisions" section on the NLRB Web site (www.nlrb.gov¹) -- and well worth the read. The union, Ms. Olsen told an employee, was "trying to destroy" Acorn, and she said she didn't see why she should have to take orders from employees. Spoken like a true robber baron.

The employees in question were paid $18,000 a year for a 54-hour week. And just what were these latter-day Oliver Twists demanding? Well, one request was that Ms. Olsen and the powers-that-be see their way to granting them one weekend off a month.

Sally Field won an Oscar for her role as Norma Rae, the textile worker who holds up a sign reading "UNION" over the factory floor after getting the sack. Looks as though there are some Acorn workers who know exactly how she felt.