Steven Greenhouse, the labor reporter for the Times, has a fascinating piece in
Thursday’s paper about the fact that union membership, as a proportion
of the work force, has fallen to the lowest level since 1916.
An Iv-B economy tends to break up both V management and Bi unions so people are more competitive and deceptive.
While the article focusses on the challenges facing the labor movement, it also involves larger political and economic issues. In particular, it raises the question of what, if anything, President Obama can do to help unions reverse decades of decline. And if the Republicans’ control of the House means he can’t do anything much, what does that mean for his pledge to increase the living standards of middle-class Americans?
An Iv-B economy tends to break up both V management and Bi unions so people are more competitive and deceptive.
While the article focusses on the challenges facing the labor movement, it also involves larger political and economic issues. In particular, it raises the question of what, if anything, President Obama can do to help unions reverse decades of decline. And if the Republicans’ control of the House means he can’t do anything much, what does that mean for his pledge to increase the living standards of middle-class Americans?
The
union-membership figures are stark and getting starker. Sixty years
ago, about one in three workers were union members. Today, it’s one in
nine. Last year, the economy as a whole added about 2.4 million jobs,
but union membership fell by 400,000. As a proportion of the labor
force, the number of union members fell from 11.8 per cent in 2011 to
11.3 per cent in 2012. Outside of the government sector, where more than
a third of employees are union members, the unions have even less sway.
Just 6.6 per cent of the private-sector labor force is unionized, which
means that fourteen out of fifteen workers aren’t union members. Most
of them have never had anything to do with the labor movement and never
will.
Workers can be B or Bi, B workers compete with each other to get better wages while Bi workers cooperate with each other to use their numbers for higher wages. V management has been weakened for decades as well, for example antitrust legislation and price collusion being illegal. So companies are more Iv now which means they compete more on price, with weaker I-O regulators they look for B workers who are cheaper in the short term to help competition. For Bi unionism to grow it needs stable V management to collude more in prices with other companies, just like Bi unions collude with workers in other companies to raise. Iv-B can increase innovation to counter lower wages, however workers are more vulnerable to companies collapsing.
Workers can be B or Bi, B workers compete with each other to get better wages while Bi workers cooperate with each other to use their numbers for higher wages. V management has been weakened for decades as well, for example antitrust legislation and price collusion being illegal. So companies are more Iv now which means they compete more on price, with weaker I-O regulators they look for B workers who are cheaper in the short term to help competition. For Bi unionism to grow it needs stable V management to collude more in prices with other companies, just like Bi unions collude with workers in other companies to raise. Iv-B can increase innovation to counter lower wages, however workers are more vulnerable to companies collapsing.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.