I disagree to a point. If workers cannot band together to protect themselves then capitalism descends into a Dickensian nightmare. The best situation is when unions have enough power to promote safe working conditions and fair compensation but not enough power to command the business. Private sector unions have a place while government worker unions should be outlawed.
“The best situation is when unions have enough power to promote safe working conditions and fair compensation but not enough power to command the business.”
All the things that were huge abuses of the Capitalist system in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to the working class have been remedied by Federal and State agencies and labor legislations. For example, the state of Florida dictated the only way to fire people and not get sued. Council, write up an improvement plan, council and state differences between performance and plan and then on the third occurrence or the agreed date the employee can be fired. Lots of paper required. Now, not every grievance gets addressed and not every grievance results in a lawsuit. However, not all grievances are real.
Interestingly enough, most of the people I fired seemed relieved. One even shook my hand and said thanks. So, not all the idiocy in a labor relationship is due to the employer. Employers now need protection against government funded racial suits, bogus injury suits and a host of anti-employer legislation. Is it any wonder employers take their operation outside the reach of these regulations?
But with OSHA and a plethora of agencies arguing on behalf of the employed, there is zero need for a union. Unions are, by their nature, adversarial and in my opinion totally change the employer’s social and political dynamic toward the negative.