Organized unions = organized crime
A law applies to all, or to none. Those that apply only to some are invalid, and not binding.
>>businesses can sign a collective bargaining agreement with a union that sets the wages below the local minimum
Well, that really is hilarious.
Technically, a collective bargaining agreement with a union can pretty much thumb their noses at most labor laws in this "fine" state. I recall some years ago when the non-union job I had did away with the "9/80" or "4/10" working options.
Basically, 9/80 said that within a two week period, you worked 9 hours a day for 8 days, 8 hours a day for 1 day, and you had the 10th day in that period off. Alternatively, with 4/10, you could work 10 hours a day for 4 days and have the 5th day off each week. Our company was forced to dump the system because the state said we'd have to be paid 1 or 2 hours overtime each day we worked, regardless of the day off, which I believe was also declared illegal.
I remember speaking to a friend around that time who worked for a quasi-state government agency that was unionized. He still had his 9/80 work schedule with no overtime involved. When I inquired, he said that was what the agency and the union "negotiated". Didn't matter that the supposed law of the state said you couldn't do this!
Maybe we need a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law to all Americans, instead of the 3 tiered system of Laws and Justice we have now??
bkmk
The minimum wage was always about helping union labor. First, it prices lower skilled people out of the job market, which decreases competition for union workers. Even more important, the wages paid to unions on federal contracts is tied to the minimum wage. The higher the minimum wage, the more union workers get paid when they work on government contract jobs. It’s a scam and always has been