Fernando Cassia wrote: > Speaking of books, and not to rain on your parade, I watched Michael > Moore´s "The Big One". In one segment, MM shows the stuggle of workers > at the Borders book stores to unionize. > > He listens to them, hears a woman cry on how little they make, and she > lives on a car, etc etc. Finally, the segment ends with good news: the > Borders workers unionize and everyone is happy. > > So a decade later everything worked right for them, right?, Right?. > > Well, not quite: > > July 2011: Borders closing its remaining stores > http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0719/Borders-closing-remaining-stores > > So, unless you unionize *everyone* those who prevent unions will have > a competitive advantage, and they will crush the unionized ones.
that's why socialists have always argued against pure and simple unionism. But even if there is localized unionism (to Borders only, e.g.) labor economists have found a lot of advantages _to employers_ of having unions (compensating for any cost). In any event, it's not the union that killed Borders; all the stuff in the business press suggests that management just didn't know how to compete with Amazon, etc. -- Jim Devine / "In an ugly and unhappy world the richest man can purchase nothing but ugliness and unhappiness." -- George Bernard Shaw _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
