Ben Hogan set up a golf club company in 1954. Before it had barely produced and sold a single set of clubs a union organizer came to the Ben Hogan Company plant.
When the workers called an organization meeting, Hogan spoke first:
I understand that all of you fellows want to organize my business here and join a union. Well, that is certainly your privilege. If you’d like to pay a nice portion of your salaries to a union, be my guest. You obviously think that by organizing you’re going to make a lot more money, and, in effect, tell me, the boss, what you’re going to do. Before you vote, let me tell you just one thing: I’ve already started over once, and I can and will do so again, if necessary. So far, neither I nor my investors have made one damned cent. When we do make some money, I’ll see to it that you make some too. Until that happens, you’re not going to make one damn cent more than I can afford to pay you. And if any of you don’t like those terms, you can go straight to the pay window and draw your severance pay, because in thirty minutes this plant will begin operating full-blast again. Period!
The workers did not join the union.
This is the sort of thing the current card check supporters deem intimidating and wish to outlaw. There are two things I’d like to draw attention to from this passage, that I am certain generalize, both have to deal with the concept of worker exploitation that is (mythically) at the heart of much of the anti-capitalist sentiment out there.