Collective bargaining is not anti-free market, rather, collective bargaining is an element of the free market and if workers get together and decide to strike for higher pay that's absolutely their prerogative. On the other hand, what is not their prerogative is to beat up those people who cross the picket lines, because at that point it's not a matter of economics.
Syndicated columnist and author, Ben Shapiro
The problem with the public sector union is that they are essentially bargaining with the politicians, who have a vested interest in giving into the unions which give them campaign contributions. Not only this, but the politicians aren’t parting with their own money, they’re actually parting with the taxpayers’ money. So what you really end up with is a conspiracy of unions and politicians to rip off the taxpayer
Author, Commentator and President of The King's College, Dinesh D'Souza
I have no objection to collective bargaining in and of itself, but I do object to the sort of mafia style strong arm tactics that [private sector] unions often use which sometimes reach such a point that they make the companies themselves unproductive.
[Workers' unions] were established in the United States to prevent African Americans from working. After the American Civil War when four million slaves were released, one million of them immediately left the south and started moving north looking to work in coaling and on docks, and because they were willing to work for less money, they undercut the wages of established workers. In order to prevent this, workers’ unions set about establishing a minimum wage requirement which effectively priced African Americans out of the market in order to protect their own jobs.
President of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, Star Parker
Labor unions tend to operate in a very short sighted manner, most often by attempting to maximize the pay and benefits of their members in the short term even as it ends up costing their jobs in the long term by bankrupting the employers.
Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff
because labor unions tend to bargain for wages collectively on behalf of their members, employers aren't free to pay individual employees based on merit or productivity. When employees are given equal pay for unequal productivity, it not only results in lower wages for better employees, it also reduces a company's productivity as a whole by reducing employee incentives to be more productive.
labor unions ... become a detrimental [force] ... largely because they're able to use their political clout to persuade politicians to enact laws which mandate union membership and certain worker benefits and protections which make hiring costs prohibitively expensive
the entire [government/union] process is corrupt because these unions help to elect the very government officials who they then negotiate with for exorbitant pay and benefits.
In the private sector, [workers' unions play] an increasingly small [role] ... [the] issue of unions is really important in the public sector because I think private sector unionism is at an all-time low in the United States, but public sector unionism continues to rise. It artificially increases the cost of labor for governments which means tax payers. For example, a Stanford University found that California's unfunded pension liability is about $500 million (about 6 times their annual budget). They're already inherently parasitic in that a government employee can't exist without the tax payer who is the host.
Writer and Cato Institute Budget Analyst, Tad DeHaven
Voluntary unions are like any voluntary organization and do no damage. Mandatory unions where workers are forced by law or threats of violence to pay union dues to union bosses create a monopoly power that extorts money from workers without their permission.
President of Americans For Tax Reform, Grover Norquist
In spite of his support for free markets, John Stuart Mill, the father of modern liberalism, argued that the excessive bargaining power of employers in relation to individual employees meant that the formation of unions to redress the imbalance should be facilitated by the state
Professor & Head of QUT's School of Economics and Finance, Tim Robinson
Beyond bargaining around wages, unions have been responsible for enormous changes in hours of work, work practices and worker entitlements over the years. If the recent trend of declining union membership on the part of workers is anything to go by, it appears that unions have been so successful in pursuing their aims that, at least for now, their major work has been done.
Workers should be free to collectively bargain with employers. And employers should be free to bargain with them or not ... The government should not put its thumb on either side of that scale.
Communications Director, Club For Growth, Mike Connolly
today most union workers don't work for businesses, they work for the government. ... They aren't negotiating with a counterpart focused on the bottom-line. They negotiate with politicians -- and often politicians that they help elect. In fact, unions pour millions into electing politicians who in turn give unions (particularly union bosses) sweetheart deals at taxpayer expense.
Independent Women's Forum director and Goldwater Institute senior fellow, Carrie Lukas
Workers unions can be a stranglehold on the economy where the only way you can hire labor is if you pay these astronomical figures which, to some extent, influences businesses to move overseas or to move to different parts of the country ... I think the union movement was designed to protect the workers from mistreatment but there were a lot of people who played on the system. Having to play with the union, and you can see it with the teachers union, it's clear that we don't necessarily get quality because we pay top-notch money ... [Employees] need to be responsible and not assume that they're protected by the union so that they can be slack workers, because then what you've done is strangle-held the business owner who has no recourse.
Entrepreneur and Chairman of The Frederick Douglass Foundation, Timothy Johnson
Private unions don't play much of a role anymore. The percentage of the private labor force that is unionized has dropped precipitously since 1950, but the dominant effect of the unions right now is in the public sector and that has led to an appreciable increase in the relative compensation of public employees vs. private employees and increases the amount of expenses for government. There are still some powerful unions in the private sector but in many cases those powerful unions have driven their companies almost out of business. I used to be the chief economist for Ford Motor Company and I saw it almost destroy the American automobile industry ... In the private sector, unions ended up killing themselves and in the public sector they have increased expenses for government and consequently taxes.
Cato Institute Chairman Emeritus and Senior Economist, William Niskanen
Private workers’ unions play a diminishing role in the economy, partly because once we move to a global marketplace, the costs that they impose through higher wages and benefits in industries where pricing is very sensitive, makes the unions a liability.
Contributing editor of City Journal and Manhattan Institute senior fellow, Steven Malanga
it’s mostly true that in ... [specialized] industries, ... [highly educated workers] find themselves in a stronger bargaining position than that of low skilled workers who rely on the strength of the union rather than the strength of their qualifications.
[Workers' unions] can help fight for freedom overseas – the AFL-CIO helped win the Cold War by supporting Solidarity in Poland.
Editor of FutureOfCapitalism.com and author of "Samuel Adams: A Life", Ira Stoll
Where unions don't work well is in the professions ... like teaching, where they often impede accountability, protect the incompetent and reduce quality with work rules
Author, commentator and lead Bloomberg View columnist, Jonathan Alter
