The United Steelworkers long has been known as the union all too willing to cut off its nose to spite its face. Think of how it helped (though with an able industry assist) to bring Big Steel to its knees decades ago. Think, too, of how these days it fights for an ever higher minimum wage that serves to reduce entry-level employment opportunities that hit minorities the worst.

Well, the face-spiters are back, this time demanding that the federal government effectively block aluminum imports.

In a Monday filing with the Federal Trade Commission, the union seeks onerous tariffs that would make aluminium imports too expensive and, thus, not worth the trouble of foreign manufacturers. The USW claims a flood of cheap imports has all but gutted the domestic aluminum industry.

But a smart thing happened on the latest road to protectionism: The industry itself hasn't signed on to the USW petition. Perhaps that's because, unlike the union, it actually understands the lousy economics of such folly. Given the global nature of aluminum making, blocking imports would significantly raise the cost of doing ˇ°downstreamˇ± business for American manufacturers, maybe even bankrupt them.

ˇ°Reason is but choosing,ˇ± Milton wrote. Sans reason, the United Steelworkers has chosen wrong in this matter.