Organized Labor

Issue

   Organized labor (unions) have allowed workers to engage in collective bargaining agreements to attain higher pay, better working conditions, and acquire additional benefits. However, is allowing workers the ability to go on strike and "strong arm" their employers into accepting their demands that good of a policy for the nation?

Solution

   Unions have contributed to the rising cost of products to the point that some goods have become unattainable and are no longer affordable for the average consumer. For example, the cost of an automobile has risen dramatically over the years due to higher wages and other benefits imposed by unions. The U.S. auto industry had to consider other alternatives such as moving jobs overseas, or fully automating plants with robotics, in order to lower costs and stay competitive.

   Another major concern with unions is that striking workers may negatively affect the rest of the nation that don't directly benefit from their negotiations. For example, transportation-related unions (e.g., railway, shipping, trucking) have enormous influence on a wide range of products and services due to directly affecting their supply chain. If any of these transportation-related workers go on strike, it causes a cascading effect on other industry workers that don't directly benefit from the union's demands. This causes an unfair amount of influence that a particular union has on the rest of the nation.

   From a legal perspective, union workers who go on strike with the intention to threaten companies to the point that if businesses don't meet their demands, their businesses will fail is essentially extortion. Legislation needs to be considered that will allow the Justice Department to file criminal charges against striking workers, or their conduct may never be corrected.

   There are approximately 15 million union workers in America that has a population of over 340 million. Should so few dictate the welfare of everyone else?