The Union Fix - Part 2

In part one of “The Union Fix” I introduced the immediatestep towards dismantling the strangle hold unions have on U.S.manufacturing.  In part two, I discussthe longer-term solution to finally break the cycle of anti-competitiveness andbring manufacturing back to our nation.

In Washington State,the IAM waged a strike on the Boeing Company in 2008 resulting in months ofdelays and lost production.  Afterreaching a contract agreement, Boeing sought assurances from the IAM that itwould not strike again.  When the IAWfailed to meet this demand Boeing made the decision to build a second 787assembly line in North Carolina,a right-to-work state.  Although nowembroiled in a highly publicized lawsuit against Boeing over the decision, theIAM provides a perfect example of how unions price themselves out of themanufacturing labor market and drive companies to alternative markets. 

The Boeing case also illustrates part of my proposedsolution.  Twenty-two of our nation’sStates are right-to-work states. However, the liberal foothold in the remaining 28 States is unlikely torelent sufficiently to permit the adoption of right-to-work laws.  Therefore, we need a compellingcompromise. 

Large corporations are forbade from controlling too much ofa given market per existing anti-trust laws. The word monopoly in the halls of the Federal Trade Commission is aspringboard to action and eventual divestiture of assets from the offendingfirm.  However, these same principleshave not been applied to unions.  Unionsthat represent all employees to a particular firm or industry have a monopolyon that labor market.  Therefore, weshould extend anti-trust laws to unions via legal precedent orlegislation.  In so doing, no singleunion would be able to have a monopoly on labor.

The outcome of this step would be a dismantling of theAFL-CIO, SEIU, and Change to Win Federation. In addition, no one union could represent all the employees in aparticular trade at a single company. Therefore, more than one union would be required; in cases where noadditional union is ratified, at least a portion of the employees would not beunionized.  In all cases, the unionswould be forced to compete with one another for members.  Competition would tend to put downwardpressure on dues and inherently limit the amount of money available forpolitical manipulation.

This solution is effectively a compromise in that it stillallows a closed shop for unions, it preserves worker’s rights to unionize, andit gives workers greater choice in representation.  Finally, from the perspective of the firms,there would be competition in the labor market giving the companies greaterflexibility over the compensation packages. In turn, this helps prevent ludicrous pension benefits, exorbitant wagesfor menial labor, and ultimately makes the U.S.manufacturing industry more competitive against a world of low pricedalternatives. 

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