Hey guys, I just found this really interesting article from The Guardian pertaining to an interesting situation with LA’s unions. The article states that, after fighting for a $15 minimum wage within their city, unions are now attempting to exempt themselves from the rule, stating that it would allow workers to negotiate benefits with their workers more effectively. It goes on to state that union membership has been steadily decreasing throughout the past several decades. However, this creates an interesting situation, since the only place that businesses within LA are going to find labor for below $15 an hour is within the unions, which will cause businesses to flood the unions, and there will be little or no non-union labor left.
What do you guys think the implications of this are? Will it be better, from an economic standpoint, for there to be so much union participation? Does it give too much power to the unions? Could this have been a ploy by the unions to get participation to increase?
Personally I argue Matt Haller who in the article said that it is pretty hypocritical for the unions to fight for a minimum wage raise to $15 by 2020, while they want to be exempt from this policy. In addition this could lead to further declining union membership. Another interesting wrinkle is the right-to-work law, where states require employees at unionized workplaces to pay a portion of union dues even if they do not belong to the union. To me that seems like an unnecessary and annoying law that is taking money away from those who earned it. I think this could cause a further decrease of union participation (it has dropped to 10 percent since 1980). I feel like this amendment is hurting workers more than it is helping unions.
ReplyDeleteExtremely hypocritical. You can't have your cake and eat it to. This article shows that even unions can be politicized even though it is argued that they are doing what is in the best interest of the worker. In terms of what is best for the worker I am unsure.
ReplyDeleteWhat does everyone think of unions in the 21st century? I mean wasn't the reason they were started to get better working hours and safer conditions? Do they have a place in a truly capitalist society? Are there alternatives to unions, which are often very corrupt?
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