Unions and Blue-Collar Workers

[CroSpartacus]

Having studied many different economic philosophies, I have always been a strong free market capitalist. I enjoyed reading about Mises, Friedman, and Hayek and always pushed to support anything to free up the economy.

I was fortunate to find a decent career after college working for a mechanics union. Having finished school with a history and economics degree, I had hell of a time finding a teaching job. Working for the union, I had the opportunity to interact with many blue-collar auto workers who support strong unions because they see that without the union, dealerships would hire part time employees while outsourcing as many jobs as possible.

This has got me thinking that I honestly cannot blame the employees supporting unions. In the condition this economy is in, if I were a skilled auto worker who had his benefits taken away and was laid off because the dealership wanted to employ someone in India, I would be furious.

The law of unintended consequences would say that prices would drop if companies could outsource and hire cheaper labor, but I still would be out of a job paying me a livable salary. Many skilled workers had to resort to going to some kind of $9 an hour retail job. If companies like the auto dealerships had their way, they would only employ cheap labor offering zero benefits.

These days, the common people will work for any wage. Being a union worker, I see this whole economic mess as a war of survival. Either you stand strong with skilled workers and demand a livable income, or you resort to working for low pay in an economy that is hopeless.

I am not turning away from free market capitalism, only I don't see the free market benefiting me when you only pick and choose where to allow economic liberalism to function. Either you have pure capitalism or you don't. In a corporatist economy like the US, with a mixture of socialism and capitalism, I cannot see how actions such as curbing union strength will benefit the worker.

I personally would turn down a 8/hr part time job for any chance to receive a decent middle class salary. If laying off workers with a livable income and insurance would provide jobs for 3 part time employees with no benefits, I do not see that as an improvement.

 

[Acala]

1. Unions only benefit members to the extent there are non-members who are paid less. If everyone was paid union wages, across-the-board price increases forced by the higher wages would negate the benefits of union wages. So it is essentially using special government-granted benefits and the threat of unofficial violence to get higher pay at the expense of the rest of the working people.

2. Wages are prices. Unions essentially enforce price controls. When prices are held artificially high, the result is a surplus of the goods or services. A surplus of labor is also known as unemployment. Unions cause unemployment by holding wages artificially high.

3. Because they rely on special government-granted advantages and the threat of violence (Mises called this the gun under the table) their activity is immoral.

That having been said, unionism could be excused somewhat as a response to the rise of corporatism. But they didn't fix the problem, they simply nosed in at the trough leaving the majority of working people even worse off.

 

[kpitcher]

I know that in Michigan if a non-union shop works for the government they have to pay - and bill - union wages for work done. Not sure how other states are.

 

[Fox McCloud]

I know that in Michigan if a non-union shop works for the government they have to pay - and bill - union wages for work done. Not sure how other states are.

It's that way in most states, AFAIK.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Supply and demand. When there is demand for workers, there is no need for Unions. Excess labor creates the demand for Unions. Workers can only be abused when they have no options.

 

[Henry Rogue]

I think unions could exist in a true Free Market , but they would spontaneously emerge and dissolve as needed (I am thinking of company money in remote locations as an example). What makes unions bad in our world is what makes corporations bad. They manipulate our economy through government force. By the way, Big Business loves Big Union, unions drive away competition.

Unions aren't great for all it's members, only the fittest survive, as the least productive are laid off. If the least productive were allowed to work for less pay, they would be able to retain their job. No need for those less productive unemployed workers to despair, they have the more productive employed workers to take care of them.