Jet, good statement.
Mish has lambasted both private-sector and public-sector unions with high frequency and vehemence.
He has omitted important facts when doing so. Mish has an agenda; since it's his thread, that's fine.
It's obvious that many (not all) public-sector unions have lawfully and openly negotiated generous contracts that must be re-negotiated. Fine. For that Mish wants to ban organized labor, as he apologizes for the incompetent managerial nitwits, from California to GM, who signed off on the agreements.
He doesn't want to talk about management's failure: duty to the public interest. No!
Nobody who has studied the matter believes for one moment that organized labor will just go away because Mish says so. They'll just re-organize and return - because they represent the interests of workers.
Like other interests, they are imperfect. In many places they're just fine; they sit on corporate boards, and are politically powerful. In others they're corrupt and inefficient - just like many of the corporations that spawned them. Nobody wants that - especially the workers whose democratic votes elect union leaders. In the end, labor only has one blunt weapon - the strike. Corporations have lockouts, coercion, managers, money, and media voices like Mish's.
They can buy and sell any story, any storyteller, and they do.
There is a lawful prescription for excessive agreements: negotiation. There is a lawful prescription for inefficient labor that you can't fire: negotiation, and changes to the contract.
Many think and talk like Mish. Fortunately, many also know there's more to the story than he is saying.
Jim |
