Unions couple labor directly to consumers in the free market
Opinion piece by Commenter Dennis Drew. Unions and Labor have been Dennis’s bailiwick for as long as I have been with Angry Bear. A nice piece on labor, economics, politics, and power.
~~~~~~~~
Labor unions effectively couple employees directly to paying customers – bargaining for the maximum amount they see consumers are willing to part with. In the same light, non-union businesses sell the labor component of their products at the cheapest possible discount.
Both union and management are busy racing after the same customers’ pocketbooks. What American labor needs is to regain equality at the starting blocks.
Fifty percent of American workers reportedly want to join a union. Only 6% of private sector workers have been able to — thanks to ownership’s overwhelming, illegal resistance. Stepped up law enforcement –- no matter how determined –- is never going to deliver truly free market starting blocks to the majority of workers.
Only practicable way to guarantee that all workers, who want to organize, can organize: federally mandated, regularly scheduled, labor union cert/recert/decert elections at every private workplace.
Why Not Hold Union Representation Elections on a Regular Schedule? onlabor, Andrew Strom
Mandatory, periodic union elections would be the perfect issue – really is the only issue – that can bring back Obama-Trump voters to the political fold where they belong, in droves.
“[P]inning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”
How the Obama Coalition Crumbled, Leaving an Opening for Trump, The Upshot I NYT, Nate Cohen
What argument could Republicans possibly foist to oppose re-raising American workers to their should-have-been-accustomed-to level of economic – and political – power?! Hillary lost because Democrats didn’t do enough for our lost souls during their span in the White House; not so they could see their lot seriously improving.
Welcome back to the Democratic Party, working America.
It’s more of a three way contest. The companies are already working to maximize what they get from consumers. Unions are about workers getting a bigger share. Companies always claim that raising pay would raise prices, but the big price driver is the need to satisfy investors and pay executive salaries.
Without unions, employees are not even in on the three way struggle — just taking what’s left over after the management v. investment struggle …
… v. whatever labor gets in the business down the road in the same lousy, low wage spot for the most part.
Walmart has 7% labor costs. Can you imagine what the Teamster’s Union would do with that? Double wages and prices only go up 7%. Might not even lose customers if there is a mass movement to higher wages for people at the pay level that patronize Walmart.