The Union and Capitalism

A delegate of the Union of Locomotive Engineers comes to Dagny's office at the John Galt Line company headquarters and speaks with her on behalf of the men that work for Dagny. The reader is abruptly introduced to this situation with the sentence: "I don't think we're going to allow you to run this train." which was a very foolish attempt at telling Dagny that the Union is not in favor of the continuation of the bridge project. It is indeed a very lousy way of starting this conversation off with a person like Dagny who immediately says afterwards: "Get out of here.". Good for her, because she basically put the delegate in his place, who was bewildered and shocked by the sentence. The reason to the mans bewilderment is due to the fact that, normally when the Union comes knocking on the doors of business executives, they are met with a warm greeting and a favorable outcome for the Union in the end. However, Dagny has no need for appeasing the Union since it is in her power to hire new workers, ones that are compliant and happy with what they are given. 

Also, not only does Dagny put the delegate in his place, but she also exposes the entire Union for the fraud corporation it is: upon listening to the delegates argument on how the bridge bypasses the safety of the workers, Dagny explains that what the delegate really wants is "... a stranglehold on your men and by means of the jobs which I [Dagny] give them -- and on me, by means of your men. You want me [Dagny] to provide the jobs, and you want to make it impossible for me to have any jobs to provide." . What this basically means is that the Union wants the poor (the workers) to be even poorer and Dagny to be unable to help them so that the poor blame her instead of the Union who are the actual culprits of their job loss. However, gross in nature this may be, it is all the same very real and should be dealt with. So, Dagny does handle the situation well by forcing the delegate to either comply with her wishes or to find work someplace else and, of course, the delegate chooses the latter of the two options which presents another win for Dagny. Well done indeed.