The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today opposing the federal imposition of monopoly bargaining on America’s firefighters, police, and EMTs.

The article lists many compelling reasons to be against monopoly bargaining, but never fully lays out the case for opposition to this form of compulsory unionism as a fundamental issue of employees’ individual rights.

The fact is freedom of association should preclude union bosses from being able to force employees to accept their so-called "representation," thereby stripping individuals of their freedom to contract. Even worse, union bosses force employees — union members or not — to pay money for the "privilege" of losing their right of self-representation.

Even convicted criminals have the right to choose their own representation. It’s deplorable that Congress would try to force states to strip first responders of their freedoms.