All Posts Tagged With: "labor unions"

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

Unemployment: What Is It?

Unemployment has regained center stage now that the debt crisis has receded from that position, at least for a time. Unless things change dramatically over the next year unemployment will be the number one issue in the forthcoming presidential election. Hardly any proposal will escape being labeled “job-killing” or “job-creating” or both. To begin with [...]

26Oct2011 | Warren C. Gibson | 2 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

Forked-Tongued Washington Government

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies and still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the Department of Justice. The Act contains two important provisions. Section 1 outlaws contracts and conspiracies in restraint of trade. Section 2 prohibits monopolization and attempts to monopolize. Most [...]

24Aug2011 | Walter E. Williams | 3 comments | Continued

The 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 | 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

Wisconsin 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 | Continued

Guest blogging: Unions

The recent conflicts in Wisconsin and other states over unions have a generated much heat but little light. That is because most discussion asks the wrong question and ignores the economics of unions. The right question is not whether unions are good or bad. A union is a voluntary association of employees that attempts to [...]

2Mar2011 | Jeffrey Miron | 42 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

Government Union Protests Spread

“The offensive by Republican governors to tackle the power of public employee unions sparked new clashes Tuesday as protesters descended on Ohio’s capitol and Democratic lawmakers in Indiana fled the state to avoid a vote on anti-union legislation.” (Washington Post) The politicians have dug us a nice hole. FEE Timely Classic “Government Workers Are America’s [...]

23Feb2011 | Foundation for Economic Education | 1 comment | Continued

Free-Speech Clarity by California Courts

When kids get into complex arguments about who did what to whom, parents can usually sort through the miasma by focusing on a few key points. Whose toy is it? Which one of you threw the first punch? And likewise, almost every major debate in the political arena these days can be sorted out by [...]

24Nov2010 | Steven Greenhut | 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

Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization

Free trade is the consumer’s best friend and a great contributor to peace. Pressing those ideas home is Cato Institute trade expert Daniel Griswold’s challenge in this book. He is mad for trade, while too many others are mad against trade. As an example of the latter, consider radio host and writer Lou Dobbs, who [...]

25Aug2010 | William H. Peterson | 1 comment | 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

The Worm in the Apple

Just as a government monopoly in postal service would be a bad idea even in the absence of postal-worker unions, so would “public education” be a bad idea even in the absence of teacher unions. There can be no doubt, however, that the major teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of [...]

5Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 4 comments | Continued

The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey

Growing up in a fairly poor family in rural Manitoba, David Henderson would have seemed an unlikely candidate for the authorship of one of the most resounding libertarian books to come along in years. But an innate sense that there was something valuable in having the freedom to live one’s life according to one’s own [...]

30Jun2010 | George C. Leef | 0 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
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