Prisoners to fill jobs that used to be held by unionized workers

[Thorne]

Except unions are not businesses. They are (or were) combinations of workers who united to protect their common interests against oppressive employers and governments.

Competition is anathema to them.

The operative word here is "were". Many unions have become little more than monopolies, paying huge sums of members' money to politicians in order to insure that real business cannot carry on without their approval. Not to protect the workers, except as an afterthought, but to protect the incomes of the union leaders. The devastation of Detroit, the disappearance of the US steel industry, the transfer of jobs overseas, and many other business collapses can all be laid, directly or indirectly, at the feet of the unions.