Unions are Expensive

Greta at Minnpost wrote the following:

" But the facts remain that unions’ membership decline in Minnesota has been largely at the hands of automation, globalization, and a business climate that seeks to prevent workers from organizing more than in the past — things that don’t appear to be going away anytime soon."

Of course, that riled me...

"automation, globalization, and a business climate "

Why do folks work so hard to avoid saying the obvious?

Unions declined in the Private economy because they increase the cost of products / services and most American Consumers do not want to pay more to support the higher wages, better benefits, etc of those employees?

And the only reason the Public employee unions have grown is because there is pretty much no competition allowed in that sector and the tax payers don't get to choose their service provider.

I wonder what would happen if we told citizens that their tax bill would be reduced by 1% by making public employee unions illegal again. Would they vote for the tax reduction or not?" G2A

 I think Unions could be useful if they partnered with the employers to ensure only the best employees were in the union ranks, that their education / performance was maintained, etc.  But this demanding more pay, more protections, more etc without adding any measurable value is something that consumers simply will not voluntarily pay for. Therefore if the job can be moved, the consumers will demand that it is.


The reason that service jobs and others can be unionized in a region is because the worker is needed in that city...  Therefore the costs go up and the customers pay it...  Or they hold their convention in a lower cost city.