Romney

Are Unions Fair?

When Labor and Capital, (business owners), work together we see synergy beyond belief, but when they are at odds, we have unfairness and usually at the expense of Capital.

For example: When employees get together to bargain with ownership it is called a Union, but if owners get together to bargain with employees it is called “collusion.”

Let’s take the Auto Industry. If the “Ford” Union bargains with “Ford” ownership, then there is fairness and equal power on both sides, but if the “Ford” Union gets together with the other Automakers unions and form a “giant” union and then negotiate with the individual Automakers, we have an unbalance of power that is slanted to the employees. The Automakers are selling competing products.

Next, let’s take the National Football League. The owners work together with the players to promote/sell the same product, called NFL Football. The players from separate teams have a single “giant” union that negotiates with the owners as a group. This seems to allow a balance, but if we look further we see that as in the case of other Pro sports, there is an imbalance towards the players. The NFL is selling the same product and are not competing for sales. They escentially sell to one buyer called Television.

If the players decide to abandon the union, or more importantly “threaten” to abandon the union and “decertify”, then the owners will not be able to work toward keeping the “League” together. They will begin to lookout for their own interest before the interest of the League and the “bigger market” teams will eventually be the only ones left standing.

If the owners try to keep the league from loosing its small market teams by working together with common fiscal rules, they will be brought down by our “big brother” government for “collusion.”

Baseball is a good example of how this is currently happening. The Yankees can spend as much as they want on player’s salaries and can compete for a championship every year by “buying” the best players no matter the cost….Because they can afford it!

I was an employee for 90% of my working life and had the same opinion as I do now as an owner. As an employee I wanted the company I worked for to be as profitable as possible as I saw that as being my best chance at being more profitable in my paycheck.

Why are there people who “love employees” but “hate employers?” Labor and Capital need to work together, not against each other, but there must be a “balance of power” and right now the government helps labor to have the upper hand way too often.

IMHO.