When Delta Airlines absorbed Northwest Airlines in 2008, the expanded Delta employed about twenty thousand flight attendants, orFAsas they're called in the industry. The thirteen thousand Delta FAs weren't unionized; the seven thousand that came over from Northwest were.

The nation's largest flight attendant union, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) saw the opportunity to build membership numbers and lobbied the united workforce to unionize. The question went to a vote and the results were excruciatingly close: votes in favor fell 328 short out of 18,760 cast. Subsequently, theUSA Todaypublished a roundup of media reports and readers reactions.

Some of the responses to the Delta vote didn't concern the specific FA union but the question of unions generally. For example, one commenter believes a stigma attaches to union membership, a bad one. As he puts it, "I have read pro-union people are lazy and want protection." Another commentator adds that unions have "basically destroyed the auto industry and the steel industry."

How can this criticism of unions and union workers be converted into an ethical argument in favor of an economic star system?