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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 4, 2023

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Then the airline would hirer different workers. Unions primarily only exists because the Gov gives them special rights. And if the employer violates those rights they sue and the government then uses violence at some stage of the dispute to enforce their ruling.

Example? I gave one potential instance where the union provides worker training/quality standards for short term work.

Where do unions exists as you say?

I define that as a special rights.

It means the employer can not choose to hirer a cheaper worker. If you can’t fire then you can’t hire someone else either.

It basically violates free association. Unless the employer can fire the unionized employees for not accepting the wages they are offering.

That means the employers have to sit there and take it while the union gathers up enough employees to form a monopoly. Unionized employees are worth less to the company than non-unionized employees. Are employers allowed to lower an employee’s wages if they join a union? Jamming this price signal has economic consequences.

The thing is without the coercive stuff unions don’t have any power. The coercive stuff is what allows them to get higher wages etc above market rates.

Say a company currently unionized and a new law comes into effect that the company is allowed to replace union workers with non-union workers. All they have to do to break the union is hirer 1 worker that is non-union at lower wages. Then 1 union workers loses there job. That union worker needing income then quits the union and gets hired as a cheaper non-union worker leading to another union worker losing their job and starting the process again until every union member leaves the union to be a non-union worker.

The market quickly goes to marginal costs. This also how the products the company sells are priced. They sell for the market clearing price until their is an excluded buyer.

Nobody is going to join a union unless they can boost wages and unions can’t boost wages unless they are protected from market forces which requires government intervention.