On a side note regarding union labor: Are FReepers generally against all unions? My thought is for skilled trades, where apprenticeship is necessary to ensure the worker has the requisite skills to do the job safely and accurately is not a bad thing.
I don’t know if wages in those trades go up as rapidly as government workers, which might be a factor against how bargaining contracts are negotiated, but there really seems a legitimate reason for them.
Unskilled work and paper pushing jobs do not seem to have the same merit as skilled trades.
Be curious to know others opinions.
FR’s tend to be against unions who force members thru their dues to financially support political causes that may violate members’ free will and consciences. Since the senior leadership of the big unions all support Libs and Democrats, you can understand why FR’s look askance at unions. Unions are also tone deaf when it comes to the financial fortunes of a company, asking for pay packages that sap the overall competitiveness of a company in bad economic times while giving no guarantees that union members will increase efficiency and performance. Unions were good in their infancy but now they have grown up to be 10 foot alligators!
Unions are good, as you describe them. Unions are the natural outgrowth of liberty. People should be free to organize themselves as they see fit. Freedom of Association is a natural right.
The trouble comes from the legal monopoly granted unions by the Federal Government and localities - states and cities.
See National Labor Relations Act, Davis-Bacon Act, (Prevailing Wage is determined by Union Wage Rates not actual Market rates), etc.
If Union labor competed on productivity and quality then it wouldn’t be a problem. Union labor today is political labor. It no longer represents working people.
Most licensing laws are anti-Black and anti-minority and by default anti-consumer.
I am not pro-union, but you do bring up a valid point on minimum technical qualifications. I have had to check control wiring at industrial construction sites. This has been at sites that have been union shop and non union shop. Keeping things objective, I prefer to have a union electrician out there. I have gotten along well with various IBEW locals, and have been involved in some of their technical training. My dispute is with the national leadership, not with the rank and file.
Note most of these union protests about the Ground Zero Victory Mosque are by the rank and file. IBEW Local 3, which covers NYC, is a very tough local to deal with, but I can see them backing the rank and file on this. What position national is going to take, I don’t know, but Local 3 could likely tell national to sod off.