Archive for Charles W. Baird
Freeman columnist Charles Baird is a professor of economics emeritus at California State University at East Bay.
Back Toward Serfdom in New Zealand
In the September 2000 issue of this magazine I reported that the Labour Party in New Zealand, at the behest of labor unions, had repealed the 1991 Employment Contracts Act (ECA), which had abolished compulsory unionism there. In its place was substituted the Employment Relations Act (ERA) to help unions reverse their drastic decline in [...]
1Apr2004 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedCalifornia’s Apprenticeship Scam
In 1937 Congress and President Roosevelt enacted the National Apprenticeship Act (NAA), which, sadly, is still in effect. It enables “the [U.S.] Department of Labor to formulate and promote the furtherance of labor standards necessary to safeguard the welfare of apprentices and to cooperate with the states in the promotion of such standards.”
Like most New [...]
Lessons from the Washington Teachers Union
The Washington Teachers Union (WTU) is the exclusive bargaining agent for District of Columbia government school teachers. Teachers represented by WTU must, as a condition of continued employment, pay union dues whether they want WTU representation or not. Its website, www.wtulocal6.org, boldly proclaims its motto, “Building Better Schools: It’s Union Work.”
1Sep2003 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedAn Egregious Union Scandal
The scandals involving serious misbehavior at Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, Global Crossing, and Tyco have resulted in appropriate public outrage at the dishonesty and malfeasance in those corporations. At the same time they have resulted in inappropriate bashing of all corporations by labor unions and other anti-market interest groups, which have called for much greater government supervision
1May2003 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedLabor Law and the West Coast Dock Dispute
The two-month West Coast dock dispute was settled in late November, but not until after President Bush obtained an injunction to halt the shutdown that was underway at all 29 ports from Seattle to San Diego. The injunction imposed the full 80-day “cooling off” period permitted by Sections 206 through 210 of the 1947 Taft-Hartley [...]
1Feb2003 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedThe PLA Hustle
A project labor agreement (PLA) is a hustle by unions in the construction industry to make it extremely difficult for union-free contractors to bid successfully for construction projects funded by taxpayer money. In 1947 construction unions had an 87 percent market share nationwide. In 2001 that figure was only 18.4 percent. Failing the market test, [...]
1Aug2002 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | ContinuedOn Freedom of Association
Freedom of association is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The relevant portion states, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” Seems simple enough. We may assemble ourselves into whatever peaceful associations we choose, and the government is forbidden [...]
1Jul2002 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Living Wage Folly
As of July 2001, 62 municipalities (cities, counties, and government school districts) in 24 states had enacted “living wage” regulations affecting all private and nonprofit enterprises with which they do business. California, Michigan, and Wisconsin have more living-wage ordinances (LWOs) than other states, but LWOs are spread widely over the entire country.
Moreover, there are [...]
Government-Sector Unionism
In my February column I gave two examples of the decline of unionism in the private sector and pointed out that the picture is very different in the government sector. Whereas the unions’ private-sector market share in 2001 was 9 percent, in the government sector it was 37.4 percent (down slightly from 37.5 percent in [...]
1May2002 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Pursuit of Happiness ~ Unions on the Run
In 2000 the rate of private-sector unionization in the United States was only 9 percent, a figure that has been falling precipitously since the early 1950s. John Sweeney became president of the AFL-CIO in 1995, when the private sector unionization rate was 14.9 percent, promising that he would reverse that decline. The rate has declined [...]
1Feb2002 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedBastiat and Unionism
On November 17, 1849, Bastiat delivered a “Speech on the Suppression of Industrial Combinations” in the Legislative Assembly. He spoke in favor of repealing legislation that prevented workers from organizing unions and calling strikes. The speech startled both his traditional adversaries on the left (the socialists) and his occasional allies on the right (the conservatives).
1Nov2001 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedA Reply to a Labor Priest
Charles Baird is a professor of economics and the director of the Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at California State University at Hayward. He writes a quarterly column for Ideas on Liberty.
In his 1981 encyclical letter, Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II declared that workers have “the right of association, that is [...]
The Pursuit of Happiness ~ Unions Draft Temporary Workers
Charles Baird is a professor of economics and the director of the Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at California State University at Hayward.
Under the doctrine that the Constitution is a “living document” that must constantly be reinterpreted to keep up with the times, the Supreme Court often ignores its plain text and [...]
It Depends on What the Meaning of "Advice" Is
Charles Baird is a professor of economics and the director of the Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at California State University at Hayward.
After the November 2000 election then-President Clinton worked overtime to issue executive orders imposing regulations by presidential fiat that he was unable to persuade Congress to adopt. From the creation [...]
Law’s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters by David D. Friedman
Princeton University Press • 2000 • 329 pages • $29.95
Law and economics, or the economic analysis of law, is a relatively new discipline. It was launched in the late 1950s and early 1960s and has grown in importance and in the number of its practitioners ever since. It uses key principles of economics—such as self-interest, [...]
Congress and Public Safety Unionism
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) applies to unionism in private-sector employment, except in the railroad and airline industries, where the Railway Labor Act sets the rules.No federal statute regarding unionism applies to state and local government employees. Rather, each state adopts its own rules, and 20 states have chosen not to engage in compulsory collective bargaining with unions representing public safety employees (such as police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel).
1Feb2001 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedShameless in California
Charles Baird is a professor of economics and the director of the Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at California State University at Hayward.
A year ago October the California legislature and Governor Gray Davis enacted SB645, which empowers unions with monopoly bargaining privileges at California State University and the University of California to [...]
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
