Labor Day is slightly misnamed. It's origins were in the ORGANIZED LABOR movement so it would be more accurate to call it Union Day.
Approximately 6% of the workers in the private sector were unionized in 2023. Approximately 32% of the public sector workers are unionized. (Source)
Union organizers love to say that everybody could be "middle-class" if the entire economy was unionized.
Unfortunately, economists disagree. Unions typically increase the wages of one sector of the economy without increasing productivity. More typically, unions reduce productivity by fragmenting tasks so three different "trades" need to be called in to fix minor issues. One guy digs the hole. Another guy splices the hose. The third guy signs off on the "safety punch-list" while a fourth guy is a spotter for traffic.
So John, who works in a union shop and makes $33/hour can "buy" three hours of unskilled time to cut his lawn at $11/hour. If the people who did landscaping were unionized and commanded $33/hour, then he could only "buy" one-hour (less taxes) with one hour of his labor.
Unions don't create wealth. They distort the flow of resources through the system and create the illusion of wealth.
Unions do more than just negotiate wages. They also represent workers when there is a dispute between the worker and his supervision.
Perhaps the most compelling argument that "Government" is not inherently benevolent is that Government Workers don't trust their supervisors who are fellow Government Workers. In fact, they find them five times less trustworthy than their private-sector counterparts if you use union membership as a yardstick.
Very well spoken ERJ. Short and dead on correct.--ken
ReplyDeleteUnions would be all but non existent if not for the growth in public sector unions.
ReplyDeleteThe TSA was created just for union donations to Democrats.
The days of unions being need to "protect" workers has passed decades ago.
Campaign money laundering operations.
Amen. Another waste of resources
ReplyDeletehttps://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2024/09/only-assholes-kick-best.html
ReplyDeleteAnother POV.
Isn't his day-job being a lobbyist in Washington D.C.?
DeleteNot 100% sure. Retired l think. Something to do with anti fraud investigations. Really into dogs and earth work terriers.
Deletehttps://www.taf.org/
Used to work for a non profit Taxpayers Against Fraud.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pat+burns+pfizer+fraud&oq=pat+burns+pfizer+fraud&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTM0MTIxajBqOKgCALACAA&client=tablet-android-bell-ca&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Imagine that, a man in Michigan speaking publicly the truth about labor unions. On union day no less
ReplyDeleteMy objection to a Unionised workplace is Collective Bargaining. No matter how hard you work or how skilled you are, you'll get the same pay rise as the worst slacker in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteQuite a disincentive to excel which may be a partial explanation of why productivity and efficiency is so poor in such an environment.
Phil B
Fred in Texas, 'collective bargaining'... Collective is a Marxist, socialist and communist word. Unions have a scorched earth policy. There was a tire manufacturing plant in Tyler TX that closed because of the unions policy of 'leave nothing for any other stakeholders'. A lot of well paying jobs disappeared. The union reps moved on to other areas, the plant got stripped and sold, and the jobs went away forever. Unions are like Islam. Forever trying to spread like ringworm, leaving nothing useful or desirable behind. I worked in one union facility. 99% of the workers were illegal immigrants... It's all about the Benjamin's and the Power.
ReplyDeleteSeveral unions in the US were formed before Karl Marx's published his works so collective bargaining predates Marxism. Sorry but true. If you want to say today's unions have lost their way I'm full agreement.
ReplyDeleteMarx was said to HATE unions because he saw that as an obstacle to his end point.
DeleteERJ, I have a complicated relationship with unions. Both of my parents were in one (different ones of course) and did very well by them. At the same time - and to your point - setting pay not based on merit or effort but rather on time served/being present hardly seems to be the way to insure that everyone is getting their money's worth.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing that bothers me the most is that I never get the impression that unions care about the larger company they work for. Worst case - as seen in the fallout from the Screen Writers Guild - the industry can suffer and others get laid off (even some of their own members who got the new contract), but they are "okay". It seems pretty short-sighted and gives me little incentive, in turn, to support those companies or industries for which they work. And, as you note, often times there seems to be an antagonistic relationship with management - generally not a predecessor to success.
Union as a base level of knowledge to know you have a skilled plumber or electrician? I can buy into that, although state licensing is also supposed to handle that. But I question much beyond that.
On our side of the pond, UK is likewise much more heavily unionised in the public than private sector. And some of the fall-out from that is a luddite attitude to any change in working practices, coupled with obscene levels of pay recompense should they ever consider those changes. Consequences - public sector productivity down the pan and an almighty drain on the productive private sector.
ReplyDeletePublic sector productivity?
DeleteERJ, As a retired member of Heavy Construction Laborers Local # Middle of Flyover Country I have to be a dissenting voice here. I spent the better part of my career involved in moving millions of yards of Mother Earth and paving the way for millions of drivers to have safer, faster, and easier routes to their destination.
ReplyDeleteAlong the way it paid for decent homes, cars, educations for my children, and now a good retirement and insurance for my wife and I. Something that wouldn't have been possible in the "open shop" sector around here where the wages are just now catching up to what I started at almost 30 years ago.
We have a Building and Trades side also and good hands are in high demand. Not every Tom, Richard, and Harry who walks in the door gets a spot on a job. My favorite saying is: "There are only two cant's on this job, if you can't do it, you can't stay."
Yes, I have seen my share of dubs and slackers. We police ourselves and they usually get weeded out as the contractors decline to employ them.
I can't really say much about public sector unions as there isn't much in the way of .gov entities around here that I have ever dealt with.
Remember: Skilled labor isn't cheap. Cheap labor isn't skilled.
Neck
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
DeleteOne of the trends I saw in multi-skilled unions was wage compression. Since the less-skilled outnumbered the more-skilled (shovelers and stop-sign holders vs. electricians, pipe-fitters), the negotiators bargained away some of the gap between what the in-house electrician commanded per-hour vs the prevailing rates for IBEW represented while significantly increasing the wages of the broom-pushers, shovelers and stop-sign holders.
Then there was the issue of early-retirements. Many union-represented jobs are inherently dangerous: firefighters, line-men, foundry workers and the work beats the heck out of their bodies. Contracts are negotiated where the secretary back at home-office is also entitled to the same early-retirement benefits. Maybe that was not a big-deal when office staff were a small portion of the work-force but the ratios have changed over the decades as regulations and compliance have become bigger and bigger parts of every enterprise.
Again, thanks for the detailed comment.
-Joe
Neck, every unionist soon gets around to the 'benevolent belligerant' argument. Why if it wasn't for us, they say, we'd not have those nice things. If we do not prostrate at their feet, they become angry.
DeleteNot said, no, never said by the union is that your argument rests upon the assumption that none but the collective could provide the same. For having made mention of that, there too does the unionist become angry.
My grandfather had his knees broken and work truck firebombed. Myself, I've taken shovels across my knees and have been threatened to be thrown into the acid pit. My car had four flat tires. Imagine that, all on the same day.
Off work, I've been followed home and nearly run off the road. Those acts were all by unionists. In grandfather's case, for him not going the union. In my case, because I worked too well. Didja get that, my fellow Teamsters didn't like that I performed my duties too well. Made them look bad, they said.