I support voluntary collective bargaining. It makes sense for everyone involved. Does a business want to negotiate with 5,000 people, or 1 person representing those 5,000? That's pretty simple. There can be strength in numbers, so it also makes sense for the worker to stand side-by-side with others to argue for their mutual benefit.
We can thank the labor unions for the 5-day work week, an end to
child labor, the 8-hour shift, vacation days, and many other
work-related benefits.
There is a saying that every
revolution carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. Many
Unions have fallen victim to the same things they were created to fight
against. Corruption at the highest levels, greed, and over-reaching.
I entirely support voluntary Unions in the private sector. However, when you
have a government-sector Union, which then makes large financial
contributions to politicians (as Unions are allowed to do), then the politicians are supposed to work
with the unions on our behalf while being paid by other public workers.... it gets pretty shady pretty quickly.
This isn't the only problem, as the Supreme Court has recently ruled
that corporations, even international ones, can donate an unlimited
amount of money to politicians. So a corporation from China might
have more to say about how your Senator votes than you do... not
a pleasant thought.
We owe an incredibly large debt of gratitude to labor unions, and the deepest form of loyalty is when you stand up and tell someone you care about that they are doing something wrong or hurtful. It's a hard thing to do.
And today, it is time to tell the bureaucracy which has taken over the Unions that enough is enough.
If a Union over-reaches and asks for too much, and the business
gives in -- the market can handle that. We saw just the opposite of this in the
Auto Bailouts. Instead of allowing nature to take its course, we
instead rewarded bad business decisions, and made us, the taxpayers, pay
for it (either in tax dollars or inflationary monetary policy).
Yours and my small business never gets bailed out, only the Government sponsored corporations do. That's Corporatism, not capitalism. However, in Italy in the '40s, we called that fascism.
When a business fails, it fails. We should not be made to bailout
bad decisions. The market can solve Union-corruption issues as it can solve many
others.
--- Napoleon
