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.

The 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 | Continued

On 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 | 11 comments | Continued

The 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 [...]

1Jun2002 | Charles W. Baird | 4 comments | Continued

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 | 3 comments | Continued

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 | 1 comment | Continued

Bastiat 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 | 1 comment | Continued

A Reply to a Labor Priest

In his 1981 encyclical letter, Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II declared that workers have “the right of association, that is to form associations for the purpose of defending the vital interests of those employed in the various professions. These associations are called labor or trade unions” (§20). He went on to say that unions [...]

1Sep2001 | Charles W. Baird | 3 comments | Continued

Unions Draft Temporary Workers

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 imposes what it considers to be good results. Last August, in a consolidated decision involving two cases—M.B. Sturgis, Inc., and Jeffboat Division—the National Labor Relations [...]

1Aug2001 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

It Depends on What the Meaning of "Advice" Is

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 of national monuments that place millions of acres of land out of bounds to everyone except those approved by the environmentalist establishment, to workplace safety [...]

1May2001 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

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 [...]

1Mar2001 | Charles W. Baird | 2 comments | Continued

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 | Continued

Shameless in California

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 extract monthly fees from the paychecks of faculty and staff who want to remain union-free. Every Democrat and two Republicans in the legislature voted in [...]

1Nov2000 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | Continued

A Light Goes Out in New Zealand

I have often referred to New Zealand’s 1991 Employment Contracts Act (ECA) as a model of voluntary unionism that we in the United States would be wise to emulate. Notwithstanding its shortcomings—including its mandatory personal grievance provisions, its creation of the specialist Employment Court, and its failure to do anything about the minimum-wage law—the ECA [...]

1Sep2000 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

OSHA at Home

About 16 million employees do some work at home for their employers, and that number is growing rapidly. Increasingly sophisticated computers, software, faxes, and modems have made telecommuting a realistic and desirable option for many employers and their workers. Late last year Richard Fairfax, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s director of compliance, issued an [...]

1Aug2000 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | Continued

Pulling Us Apart

Recently, two Washington, D.C., think tanks—the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities—issued a study of the income gap between rich and poor American families titled “Pulling Apart.” According to the authors, by the late 1990s average income among families in the top 20 percent (top quintile) of the income distribution [...]

1May2000 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

The Stakeholder Society by Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott

Yale University Press • 1999 • 296 pages • $26.00 This book amounts to nothing more than a new version of how to take wealth from some and give it to others in the name of “social justice.” Its principal theme is that Jefferson’s proclamation in the Declaration of Independence of equality and freedom of [...]

1Apr2000 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued

Sources of Pro-Union Sentimentality

I have often wondered why many politicians, journalists, members of the clergy, playwrights, novelists, and far too many others hold labor unions in high regard. From an economist’s perspective, they are merely labor cartels that exist mainly to restrict competition in labor markets. Moreover, they have a well-documented history of resorting to violence when they [...]

1Mar2000 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | Continued
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