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"Unions can only raise wages by constricting the supply of labor." SAG doesn't make it's 'wage' because production companies are forced to hire from a smaller
by jariel 6y ago
"Unions can only raise wages by constricting the supply of labor."
SAG doesn't make it's 'wage' because production companies are forced to hire from a smaller pool of SAG workers.
SAG sets prices.
There are actually an 'unlimited number' of SAG workers who would, if it were note for those numbers, also work for $0.
Also - unions don't set their wages by 'restricting labour' - they negotiate directly using the power of being able to shut down production. (Ok, arguably this is 'restricting the labour pool to current workers' but that would mean something different).
For Doctor and Nurses - you could argue that those guilds do actually restrict the number of workers in the field to keep prices up by supply & demand, but that's generally not what unions do.
- Aunche 6y ago> they negotiate directly using the power of being able to shut down production This is true, but they would slowly lose their leverage if they didn't constrict the labor supply. In order to join SAG you have meet certain requirements (e.g. speak a certain number of lines). The vast majority of actors in a union production have to SAG members, so this effectively acts as a rate limit to the number of new members. The same goes for other powerful unions. Ford would love to build a new factory that employs non-union workers, but they aren't allowed to.