On 7/13/05, Stewart Stremler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think a good first step would be to disallow unions from being > employers, as that's an obvious conflict of interest.
I'm willing to bet that by "disallow" you mean "make a law disallowing". In which case I'd disagree. A good first step, and final step, would be to completely do away with union-specific laws. The government doesn't have the right to regulate the employee-employer relationship above and beyond the rules governing any two-party transaction. I fully support the existence of unions, and I know that they've accomplished good things in the past, but I think that all (or most) of the problems associated with them today has as its cause the fact that they have legal protection. It is to most companies' benefit to have a stable and happy workforce. A lot of people would agree with this, but not all of them would make the next logical step and say that therefore a company is going to work to create and maintain that stable and happy workforce. And for those companies that don't need satisfied workers, why should they be forced to give those workers what they want? What right does any worker have to force an employer to do as he (the worker) pleases? The employer doesn't have the right to force the employee to do as they please. If I'm willing to work for an employer without benefit of union wages, union muscle, or union oversight, and if the employer is willing to hire me on those terms, what right do union-oriented employers have to deny me that job? It's a matter of my rights and the rights of the employer. If employees are being treated unfairly, they have more power than ever to jump ship and go somewhere else. Jumping ship is the norm in the 21st century, even when conditions are favorable. The bullying that unions do is increasingly anachronistic, and we shouldn't keep them around simply as a show of gratitude for the great things they've done in the past. To the extent that their bullying is legally protected, we should *never* have had it around. -todd -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
