The “free rider” argument that you present is regularly trotted out by organized labor in defense of maintaining its coercive power. The defenders of compulsion plead that since they are forced, by federal labor law, to represent everyone in the bargaining unit; it is only fair that everyone represented, including nonmembers, should bear the cost of representation. On the surface, that appears to be a point well taken. An examination of the legislative history of the Wagner Act of 1935, however, reveals that the provision that requires the representation of nonmembers [Sect. 9(a)] was included in the law at the insistence of American Federation of Labor President William Green. The Roosevelt Administration was strongly opposed to this provision, but William Green and other labor leaders succeeded in persuading Congress to include the provision in the law. Since that time there have been several attempts by the U.S. Congress to relieve labor of this “burden.” The latest being (H.R. 1341) submitted by Congressman Dick Armey in 1993. To my knowledge, not a single union supported that effort or any previous effort to eliminate that requirement. Union leaders routinely engage in this spectacular hypocrisy without reservation. The pervasive dishonesty that has characterized labor’s dealings with me and the public at large over the years has caused me to regard every assertion made by organized labor with deep suspicion.