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> inhibiting contract liberty Alabama is a right-to-work state, so how is a union inhibiting contract liberty? You legally cannot be forced in Alabama to pay u
by danShumway 6y ago
> inhibiting contract liberty
Alabama is a right-to-work state, so how is a union inhibiting contract liberty? You legally cannot be forced in Alabama to pay union dues if you don't want to be part of a union.
Of course, an industry might decide not to work with people who are outside of the union, but an industry might also choose not to hire anyone who refuses to sign arbitration and/or anticompete agreements, and I'd wager you probably think those contracts are the results of free choices from all players.
So by the same logic, a voluntary union in a right-to-work state is the result of voluntary contracts and decisions made by people who vote to join the union and by businesses that freely decide to work with that union in order to access that workforce. You might not like the outcome of those negotiations, but a group of people deciding to collectively accept or reject a contract is contract liberty. Of course they should have the freedom to make that decision.
I understand some of the union objections in states where employees can be forced to join and/or pay dues against their will, but people act like collective bargaining is fundamentally anti-freedom, and I just don't understand that point of view at all. What is a collective bargaining agreement other than another contract that people have the freedom to sign?
> Tesla is doing great, and its workforce is not unionized.
By what definition? There have been multiple articles and accounts describing Tesla's factories as awful places to work, and its management tried to pressure its workers to ignore COVID restrictions.
Sure, if the only thing you're optimizing for is profit, then any attempt to increase employee bargaining power is going to be a problem, because all of them will reduce profit. But Tesla seems to be largely failing the "is this what we want a modern factory/workplace to look like" test.
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Edit, addressing your points:
> We're talking about the strength of industry here. By that standard, Tesla is doing great.
That's a very vague definition -- I wouldn't say that Tesla is producing wildly better cars than everyone else on the market. They're certainly very profitable, but if you're only thinking about profit marging and stock price, then you're going to end up opposing literally anything that improves worker conditions in any way.
> The Biden administration is planning to get rid of right to work:
And your solution to that is to oppose people's rights to collectively bargain? Again, I understand some of the objections you might have around union regulations, but you're still not arguing for free contracts if you're throwing the concept out entirely. I mean, arguably even right-to-work laws themselves are anti-free-contract, I know Libertarians who hold that view because those contracts bar what contracts an employer can sign with a union.
If you have objections about federal laws, fine, but that's not the problem of the current workers who want to collectively bargain with Amazon. They shouldn't have to give up their collective bargaining rights just because you have an issue with the federal regulations, they still at a fundamental level have the right to unionize.
Take it up with Biden, don't complain about the workers.
- CryptoPunk 6y ago>>That's a very vague definition -- I wouldn't say that Tesla is producing wildly better cars than everyone else on the market. They're certainly very profitable, but if you're only thinking about profit marging and stock price, then you're going to end up opposing literally anything that improves worker conditions in any way. 1. Strength of industry is pretty commonly understood by its profitability. And profitability and worker conditions are positively correlated, so they are in no way opposing each other. The profitability of Tesla and the export revenue being brought into the US by Tesla's market success means more spending by Tesla on US-based operations which applies upward pressure on US wages. This is Economics 101. 2. If people are choosing their cars over other cars, that means they are producing better cars. Consumer choice is the only objective measure of quality we have. 3. Tesla is driving the entire car industry forward, by encouraging other auto makers to embrace electric cars, and also self-driving features, while expanding the recharging infrastructure needed for widespread use of electric vehicles. >>And your solution to that is to oppose people's rights to collectively bargain? If by "right to collectively bargain", you mean having laws that force companies to collectively bargain with unions, yes. Companies should be free to decide who to negotiate with, and free to reject requests to collectively bargain. The laws, as they are, are problematic.