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May 16, 2005
The Role of Unions
I believe that unions no longer serve a productive role in the U.S. labor market. Early in the last century, when the nation’s workforce was transitioning from rural to urban employment and most jobs were unskilled, many employers did act callously toward their workers. Industrial companies, located in the major cities and as such at the destination points for millions of immigrants, were dismissive of the safety and professional development of their employees. Unions had a legitimate role then. They spoke for groups of workers who individually had neither the skill nor the resources to apply any leverage when contracting for employment. Through the efforts of unions wages were raised and employers, now faced with a more expensive workforce, were given incentive to attend to the training of their workers. Unrecognized by the unions, however, was the fact that these successes largely rendered them obsolete.
So what role do unions play in our country today? Instead of champions of the repressed masses, unions have become parasites, leaching vital resources from their member’s employers in good times and in bad. They foster within certain groups the belief (regrettably innate in many of us) that their members deserve more. The incessant demands (and the timidity of the managers that bow to them) of unions representing employees within both the public and private sectors have led to unconscionable property tax increases and have ravaged America’s so-called “smokestack industries”. Unions have simply refused to accept that organizations on the micro level and society as a whole on the macro level suffer when employee compensation is determined by lobbying and threats, instead of by market forces.
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at May 16, 2005 10:37 AM
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