All Posts Tagged With: "freedom of association"
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 | ContinuedThe Modern Union versus Workers’ Rights
The raging controversy in Wisconsin over eliminating collective bargaining “rights” for government employees cast a bright and harsh light on public-sector unions. Some commentators have distinguished public-sector unions from private-sector unions, but the vested interests of the two are much the same. Both are expressions of what might be called “the modern union,” which came [...]
22Jun2011 | Wendy McElroy | 4 comments | ContinuedWisconsin Labor Brouhaha
Wisconsin’s been through quite a row. The new governor, elected without the support of most government-employee unions, proposed to cut back the scope of collective bargaining for most state workers. Gov. Scott Walker says the budget measure is needed to save money as well as government jobs for the debt-ridden state. Is the governor’s proposal [...]
21Apr2011 | Sheldon Richman | 3 comments | ContinuedCard 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 | ContinuedHenry 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 | ContinuedLibertarianism = Anti-racism
Rand Paul’s comments regarding the federal ban on racial discrimination in public accommodations have brought the libertarian position on civil rights to public attention.
28May2010 | Sheldon Richman | 29 comments | ContinuedCivil Rights and the Libertarian Principle
My piece in today’s Christian Science Monitor is here.
26May2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedImmigration, the Tea Parties, and Big Government
The Arizona law enabling police to ask for immigration papers or proof of citizenship of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally has fanned the flames of an already hot debate over immigration.
29Apr2010 | Steven Horwitz | 62 comments | ContinuedForgotten Lines
In the January 23, 2010, Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle, one of the clues was “Sassy reply to criticism.” The answer: “It’s a free country.” Why do I find this so striking? For two reasons. First, when I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, not many people around me considered that a sassy reply. [...]
20Apr2010 | David R. Henderson | 4 comments | ContinuedOrganizing 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 | ContinuedLanguage, Loyalty, and Liberty
The equanimity with which Americans have watched their freedoms flee puzzles many of us, but perhaps I’ve solved the mystery: they’re too busy worrying about the English language instead. They fear its imminent expiration, however exaggerated reports of that death may be. Some blame rap music, text-messaging, or state-enforced “education” for English’s demise; many fault [...]
1Oct2008 | Becky Akers | 0 comments | ContinuedFreedom, Drugs, and the Workplace
Imagine that you work for an employer whom you respect, and you like your job. Then you find out that your employer uses marijuana for a medical condition. On further inquiry, you learn that he uses it completely legally and, as far as you can tell, it doesn’t affect his performance as an employer. Should [...]
1Jul2008 | David R. Henderson | 0 comments | ContinuedHayek on Closed Shops and Yellow Dogs
Charles Baird is a professor of economics and the director of the Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies at California State University at East Bay . In my December 2006 column I discussed some of Hayek’s classical-liberal views on the rule of law and labor unions. In brief, Hayek approved of voluntary unionism based on [...]
1Apr2007 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Government-Created Right-to-Work Issue
The principles involved in right-to-work laws are identical with those involved in [workplace antidiscrimination laws.] Both interfere with the freedom of the employment contract, in the one case by specifying that a particular color or religion cannot
be made a condition of employment; in the other that
membership in a union cannot be.
Henry Hazlitt on Unions
I know of three (somewhat repetitive) sources for Hazlitt’s views on unions: Chapter 20, “Do Unions Really Raise Wages?” in Economics in One Lesson (1946); Chapter 13, “How Unions Reduce Real Wages,” in his The Conquest of Poverty (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1973); and his chapter in The Strike: For and Against, introduced by [...]
1Nov2004 | Charles W. Baird | 0 comments | ContinuedLessons 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 | ContinuedNeutrality Agreements: Bid for Union Power
David Denholm is the president of the Public Service Research Foundation (www.psrf.org), an independent research and education organization that studies unionism and union influence on public policy. All across the land organized labor is using political influence to push for public policies that facilitate imposing unionism on employees. One such policy requires employers doing business [...]
1Apr2003 | David Denholm | 2 comments | Continued-
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