It's Tea Time

I don't think unions would have ever risen to prominence in the US if the US had very well defined and enforced contract law. Employment is a voluntary contract between an employee and an employer. The employer is not obligated to offer a job, nor obligated to hire an individual after an offer (at least not yet anyway). A candidate for the job is not obligated to work for said employer. Usually the two parties will hash out an employment contract that specifies the rights and duties of the employee and of the employer. If a candidate accepts the position and the employer doesn't reject the acceptance, then the contract is sealed and is now binding. With well defined contracts and well defined contract law, the need for a union doesn't arise. If either of the parties to the contract are in breach of contract, they can sue in court to resolve the matter.

However instead of focusing on this issue, which is the root cause of most problems between employers and their employees, the notion of collective bargaining enters the scene. Collective bargaining is a horribly flawed idea that relies on the legalization of breach of contract. The fact that court cases, decided under collective bargaining laws, can establish precedent provides a negative feedback loop for future decisions.

Because of the early failures of contract law, collective bargaining gained a foothold in many sectors of industry. Thus the notion that an employee could breach their employment contract to demand more favorable terms and a new contract was born. Angry individuals were able to get others to join their cause and formed unions, which soon saw very large memberships. Because of the number of workers they influenced, these unions became politically powerful and were able to get legislation passed that legalized their ability to strike, which is a breach of contract power (they are not working and being aggressively disruptive on employer property without fear of being fired). Once that happened, they lobbied to make it illegal to fire employees for any breach of contract without the approval of the union. With these 2 rules in place, the union was positioned to force whatever concessions they wanted out of employers.

What we need is an elimination of all collective bargaining law and a reaffirmation of the sanctity of contract. We need better contract law and definitely better enforcement of it.

I couldn't agree more Benny. It's funny you bring up contract law. This was exactly the focus recently when it came to paying out bonuses at companies like AIG. Unfortunately, from what I was able to discern, it seems as though contract law itself was further weakened by that whole charade.

Thanks for the simple breakdown on the genesis of the modern union.