Non-news story of the week: Union demands higher pay for its members

The National Union of Teachers has complained that teaching assistants have been used instead of teachers to look after classes full of kids. This has resulted in job opportunities for supply teachers (who are members of the National Union of Teachers) dropping significantly.

I can barely imagine a purer example of what unions are really all about: cartels formed by workers to artificially drive up wages. Using teaching assistants to look after a classroom is not only a Bad Thing, it is also illegal (presumably thanks to the efforts of organisations like the NUT). Unless teaching assistants are capable of looking after a classroom full of kids, why would anyone bother with a law like that?

Unions tend to put themselves forward as defending some sort of moral principle (even when they're supporting laws which ban people from hiring low-skilled workers). It can hardly be a coincidence that their moral principles always happen to coincide with the interests of their members...