Archive for Charles W. Baird

Freeman columnist Charles W. Baird (http://www.charlesbaird.info/) is a professor of economics emeritus at California State University at East Bay.

Employer Speech and Freedom of Association

I have argued that forcing a worker to submit to the will of a majority of his colleagues on the question of whether a union will represent him is a violation of that worker’s freedom of association. Association with a union is rightly a matter of individual not collective choice. Here I want to consider [...]

4Jan2012 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | Continued

Hilda Solis, Secretary of Unions

Hilda Solis thinks labor unions are so obviously virtuous that any worker who votes against unionization does so only because evil labor relations consultants have conspired to muddle the worker’s brain.

10Oct2011 | Charles W. Baird | 37 comments | Continued

Crony Unionism: Government Sector

In my last column I illustrated how private-sector unions depend on government cronies to keep them afloat. In the government sector it is much, much worse. It is nothing less than a conspiracy between politicians, bureaucrats, and unions to create and sustain a fourth branch of government specifically designed to increase the cost, size, and [...]

21Sep2011 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | Continued

Crony Unionism: Private Sector

In America competition from union-free enterprises is making private-sector unionism increasingly irrelevant. Only 9 percent of union-free workers desire to become union members. The last redoubt for unions is government employment, and they are increasingly in peril even there. However, the unions are fighting back by running to politicians and bureaucrats for help. Unions needed [...]

25May2011 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | Continued

Card Check Without Congress

In 2009 I made a bet with fellow Freeman columnist David R. Henderson that before the Obama presidency expires, Congress would enact substantial freedom-reducing changes—such as card check—to American union law. David, ever the optimist, didn’t think so. Inasmuch as Speaker Nancy Pelosi is just a bad memory from a horrible dream, and it is [...]

24Feb2011 | Charles W. Baird | 3 comments | Continued

Taking On Unions

In my last column I noted that unions seem to be losing respect among the public. It now appears that that loss of respect is translating into an increased willingness by voters, and even some politicians, to challenge unions, especially those that represent government employees. Rahm Emanuel famously opined that “You never let a serious [...]

22Oct2010 | Charles W. Baird | 3 comments | Continued

Henry Hazlitt on Unions: Part II

In my last column (November) I discussed Henry Hazlitt’s views on the economic effects of unions, exclusive representation and mandatory bargaining, labor’s alleged bargaining-power disadvantage, and the right to strike. Here I will discuss three other aspects of Hazlitt’s views on American unionism: involuntary unionism, government-employee unionism, and what he called the “Grand Illusion” of [...]

8Jul2010 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | Continued

Unions Lose Respect

I have often argued that American labor unions enjoy much more respect than they deserve. In February the Pew Research Center released the results of its latest nationwide survey of public opinion regarding labor unions. It seems that, at last, labor unions are suffering significant losses of respect. Table 1 shows the percentage of Americans [...]

29Jun2010 | Charles W. Baird | 8 comments | Continued

ObamaCare and Unions

Last November 7, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962, crafted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and whimsically titled the Affordable Health Care for America Act (AHCAA). It was the House’s version of ObamaCare. American labor unions, whether representing government- or private-sector workers, enthusiastically endorsed the measure. Yet most unions have been effective at securing good [...]

24Mar2010 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | Continued

Benedict XVI on Labor Unions

On June 29 Pope Benedict XVI issued an encyclical letter titled Caritas in Veritate (CV) in which he discusses several economic questions. There is much in the letter that suggests Benedict lacks a clear understanding of economics, such as his belief that market exchanges should involve things of equal value. However, notwithstanding absurd claims by [...]

18Nov2009 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | Continued

EFCA and Compromise

As proposed, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would 1) replace secret-ballot union representation elections with card-check certification of unions as exclusive (monopoly) bargaining agents for workers in their workplaces; 2) impose compulsory-interest arbitration on employers who do not agree to a first union contract within 130 days; and 3) increase penalties on alleged unfair [...]

19Aug2009 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

Labor Economics from a Free Market Perspective: Employing the Unemployable

Notwithstanding its title, this is not a textbook on labor economics. Rather, as the author stipulates in the introduction, it is “an ideological book.” It is a collection of papers written, sometimes with coauthors, by Block during the 1990s and 2000s on various labor-related topics. Of the 29 chapters, all but three were first published [...]

21May2009 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

Organizing and the Organized

Congress permits unions to bargain for workers who do not want such representation, and it compounds this violation of freedom of association by permitting unions to force workers they represent to pay union dues and fees as a condition of continued employment. So-called union security has given rise to a circus of legal disputes which [...]

24Apr2009 | Charles W. Baird | 4 comments | Continued

How Bad Can it Get?

In August the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) in Washington state released its State of Labor 2008 (the Report), which warns of several perils emanating from the growth of government-sector collective bargaining and offers suggestions for ameliorating them. (The Report is available in PDF here .) I predict these perils will soon be much more severe [...]

20Jan2009 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | Continued

Worker Freedom in Peril

The Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) recently published its 2007 Index of Worker Freedom (IWF).The index ranks each of the 50 states on the basis of ten variables that affect the freedom of workers. “Freedom” is defined properly as the absence of interferences with individual worker choices. After explaining the ten variables used and identifying [...]

1Oct2008 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

Faculty Unions Versus Academic Legitimacy

The faculty at Montana State University in Bozeman will soon vote on whether to unionize. If a majority vote yes, the school will gradually descend into academic mediocrity or worse. The vast majority of unionized faculty in higher education are employed in government colleges and universities. This is because in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court, [...]

1Jun2008 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | Continued

Stealing for Union Bosses

Charles Baird is a professor of economics emeritus at California State University at East Bay. H. L. Mencken opined that “Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” The November 2006 congressional elections are an excellent example of Mencken’s proposition. The attempts by the 110th Congress to steal property and other [...]

1Mar2008 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | Continued
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