How to Ruin an Industry: Make it Impossible to Fire the Workers

There are few things we can count on in life. If we let something go, it will fall to whatever hard surface lies beneath it. You will never understand women if you aren't one. And if you are unable to fire the workers in a given field, you will have terrible workers.

I think unions were appropriate for much of the twentieth century, but I'm starting to wonder if the broad scope of rights and powers granted them under seventy to eight year old laws have become anachronisms. The Federal Government, which shamefully once ignored workers' rights and struck down laws benefitting workers under the "right to contract" Constitutional umbrella, has stepped in and assumed what used to be the union's role of securing minimum working standards. Are these standards great? Not really, but that doesn't mean unions should still be granted rights that essentially amount to a perpetual and impenetrable fiefdom.

The most important dynamic a union creates is this: You can't fire us. Not if we go on strike, not if we're lazy or unproductive, nor for a host of other reasons that you see in non-unionized industries. You must negotiate with us in "good faith" or we will hold a gun to your head. What does an employer get out of this? Well, if it's a sensitive industry (like, say, air traffic controllers) oftentimes the federal government mandates that the workers not go on strike. Which they often do anyway.

Unions rob industries of the flexibility needed to adapt. Look at the auto industry. If we don't see the big three, or at least two of them, declare bankruptcy in our lifetimes I will be shocked. Or, most frighteningly, look at the California teachers and prison guard unions. These blocs have grown so huge that the Governator couldn't even make a dent in their political power with a special election process. Shockingly, the pensions and benefits promised to these workers can never be changed or removed (thanks to California Supreme Court decisions....by justices whose benefits are guaranteed under similar plans). When you can't fire bad teachers, you end up with a lot more bad teachers. Even worse, because merit is not rewarded, those with ambition decide to do something else.

I'm not sure if there is an easy answer for this problem...other than, of course, eliminating uniosn or reducing their political clout. Easier said then done. Of course, I think we saw with the grocery workers strike here in California that public sympathy is no longer with the unions.