David Bernstein is discussing his forthcoming book Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform
The good stuff begins about 4 minutes in. The title of the post comes about 7:20 into the audio. The short version: a case of union extortion gone mad. Note: when I worked for a union packing house in Omaha we regularly had to do unpaid overtime. One day I messed up and didn’t punch out until I was leaving the floor and the union steward was kind enough to “fix” my time card.
Unions do provide some worker protection, but the thing they are the very best at is providing union protection. They have in fact reached their peak in the competitive sector of the economy with the bail out of Government Motors. In the coercive sector of the economy (government) the peak has not yet been reached. It is coming.
Cross Posted at Power and Control
The Law As Blackmail
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3 responses to “The Law As Blackmail”
These public sector unions should be illegal. The notion that workers need to be protected from the taxpayers (!) is absurd.
TallDave:
I’m not so certain about that. Considering the lavish pensions, the higher salaries, and better job securities public sector people have been getting compared to those taxpayers in the private sector… And considering the shellacking the private sector taxpayer has been getting with jobs, benefits, and taxes, maybe the unions ought to worry about protection.
Anon,
The coercive sector employees should be just as protected as those in the productive sector.