I was surprised to find out that Libertarians oppose unions. I do agree that Unions strip a lot of economic freedom from business’ but they are formed by people, not by the law or government. They often prevent employers being abusive, or unfair however.

I agree. I don’t believe a free market tends towards solidarity as a means of increasing the general welfare, but rather through competition and the division of labour. Likewise, I don’t think the free market will make protest or boycott less effective than competition and so those tactics will als…

A free market wouldn’t give rise to unions, because in a free market there would be no need for Unions. Libertarians must remember at all times that in world as it exists today Buisness does not operate as a free market, rather as a cartelised market which benefits a minority of priveleged interests…

Maybe they are formed by people, but their actual power is granted to them by government and its law. I don’t know how about the U.S. but in Poland union officials are paid by… Employers! I always wonder - whom do they serve… :wink:

The question of unions is not simply whether they harm or hurt business. The intent of an anarcho-capitalistic system is to provide the individual with the best possible protection from abuse. That is what unions claim to do for workers. The question is why can’t unions compete with each other for e…

My main dilemma with Unions is that being in one ensures job stability. You can’t be fired because some bureaucratic asshole doesn’t like you, and acts like he runs the organization. Bureaucrats sometimes act like they run the organization. What if a middle-higher up management in the organization d…

Unless the company goes bankrupt because it can’t fire the extra workers. Isn’t that their job? Saving money is a bad thing? That would probably go against their fiduciary responsibility. If the worker is making the company loads of profit and his manager fires him because of hate or jealousy…

Unions are mechanisms of exclusion, that traditionally relied on violence to gain privilege, (violence against the firm, and non-union workers competing for jobs) and now rely on government law (violence) to excluse other workers, limit labour competition and bully employers. Oh come on. Either you…

Why do union bosses get paid more than the workers they represent?

Why do union bosses get paid more than the workers they represent? Because their unions are corrupt hierarchical bureaucratic corporations? Why do CEOs get bonuses for plowing their companies into the ground? Because their companies are corrupt hierarchical bureaucratic corporations?

Unions always fulfill a “need”, the desire to have what others own. It just happens that a free market prevents people from using violence (thus unions) as a means towards that “need”. The idea that unions are a statist measure that forces a statist world to be less statist is absurd.

How are Unions viewed by libertarians?

Economics Economics Questions

Cal0 April 10, 2010, 2:07am 36

Thanks for bumping this thread, you saved me the hassle of making my own thread on unions. [:D]

Are there any major examples of large-scale union violence?

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How are Unions viewed by libertarians?

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