Aye...there's the rub. How do you help two opposing sides at the same time? Muy difficile, no?
Aye...there's the rub. How do you help two opposing sides at the same time? Muy difficile, no?
You assume they are opposing sides. I say they aren't necessarily opposing sides. They certainly aren't in Japan.
What if unions took over the healthcare responsibility? Certainly a national union would have more clout with insurance companies than a single firm. This isn't unheard of here in the states -- both the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity offer excellent health plans as well as retirement homes for aging thespians.
I'm out for a bit...more later.
Workers wish to offer labor in exchange for money.
Employers wish to offer money in exchange for labor.
Only those whose sight has been blurred by visions of class warfare will see employers and workers as opponents.
To be sure, workers would like to be paid as much as possible for their labor, while employers would like to pay as little as possible, but neither side has fiat power over wages.
Who prevents workers from demanding and receiving higher wages? Other workers or would-be workers.
Who precents employers from cutting wages while retaining workers? Other employers or would-be employers
The function of unions isn't to improve workers' competitive advantage against employers, because they're not competing against employers. Rather, the function of unions is to offer workers a competitive advantage over other workers and would-be workers.
It's amazing to me how often the parties on either side of a trade are treated as opponents, with policies supposedly designed to favor one or the other, when the real effect of such policies is to give or nullify competitive advantages between different parties on the same side of the trade.