The free market and trade unions. - 2007/06/05 10:29I was thinking about trade unions and wondered if in a true free market there would be any legislation governing the activerties of trade unions in the same respects that there would not be government legislation governing the activerties of firms. As free market advocate state that the market should govern firms activerties surely that argument can equally apply to trade unions. There should be no more barriers to people forming trade unions and them acting than there are for people to creating business and them trading.We shall seed the stars with our scions and reap that harvest.
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Onyx Verde
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Posts: 660
Re:The free market and trade unions. - 2007/06/06 12:09While most of what you're saying is over my head Steve-o, but what I do know is this: As always it's never that cut-n-dried, there's always lots of not-directly-related-but-still-pertinent factors... e.g. I'm not in a trade union, nor are any of my co-workers in the engineering firm where I work. Is this becuz we cant see the obvious benefits of belonging to a TU? Nope, it's because it's really REALLY frowned upon by higher management and is sure to be counter-productive career-wise (i.e. they'll pass you over for training and promotion in favour of someone whose ideals are less "Lefty"). Totally ridiculous, but as i understand it it's pandemic across Small-to-Medium-Enterpises in the engineering sector...
Just something to consider when you're thinking about the 'barriers' to joining TU's ...============================ "There is always Hope...." - Elessar Telcontar ============================
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stevetheone
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Posts: 540
Re:The free market and trade unions. - 2007/06/06 15:05So what you are saying is that the management is effictively coercing you and you fellow workers not to join or form a TU. Not an unusual reaction as workers in TU of course wield more influnce and power than a single worker. In such cases as yours you have 2 option, continue to do as the management want or get enough people to join you in a TU that they can't sideline you.
This conflict is nothing new and most employers have sought to keep unions down if not eliminate them altogeter. A strong TU can have a powerful effect on any company, even a multinational but because it is against the interests of shareholders or owner it is seen or described as being "bad". They "demand" things like greater share of the profits, better work conditions and rights for their members. They organise workers in large scale actions against the management. In the past politicians have become involved and usually on the employers side in most cases to curb what they see as the excesses of unions and to reduce the power of workers collective actions.We shall seed the stars with our scions and reap that harvest.
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Brootal
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Re:The free market and trade unions. - 2007/06/06 22:13I have to say in general I dislike Trade Unions, they are inefficient, and often counter productive. Unfortunately they are to some extent required because business left uncontrolled will often not do right by their workers (which is counter productive anyway, but they'd do it)
Put simply they are a necessary evil amongst other evils.
I personally have only ever been a member of 1 union, that being the student union, which was forced membership if you wanted to study at university, I think forced membership is wrong
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stevetheone
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Posts: 540
Re:The free market and trade unions. - 2007/06/08 11:19Strangly enough I don't consider the Student Union a Trade Union. I find it worrying that you call membership of it "forced". For the vast majority it represents cheap beer and the chance to do some silly things. It's not like you have to pay for the privilage or actually do anything. It's just easier to say that all students are members and so give those who negoitate the beer contracts with the breweries some clout in the pricing negotiation.
As for being inefficeint don't believe all the hype you read. TU's have done great work in promoting the rights of minorities and women at work. They have helped prevent the exploitation of workers and fought for the rights of their members. Good management have found ways to work well with TU's so that the interests of all parties have been addressed and reasonable compromises have been reached. It is unfortunate though that most of the news we see is when such negotiations have broken down and conflict has arisen. Greed and power have been the main stummbling blocks preventing good relationships betweent the two bodies.We shall seed the stars with our scions and reap that harvest.
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