When Labor Unions Make Sense and When They Don’t

The National Labor Relations Board may have some strong arguments with respect to its case against Boeing for its decision to move production of its 787 to South Carolina. The case argues that Boeing was retaliating against its union for striking when it decided to build a production line for its new plane out of Washington state and that the company should be forced to move production back to Washington state.

If not retaliation, at a minimum the Boeing decision was made in an effort to weaken the ability of the union to disrupt its operations. Boeing management has said as much.

But even if the case has legal justification, it doesn’t pass the common sense bar. In the first place, the decision comes awfully late. With Boeing having already invested $2 billion in its South Carolina plant and hired 1,000 workers, it seems unlikely that this case will succeed.

It also doesn’t make sense in an age when it has become so easy to move production overseas. Even if the Labor Board did win the case, it’s unclear how it could force the company to build another plant in Washington state. How could it prevent the company, for example, from moviing production overseas where the United States does not have jurisdiction. And you have to wonder whether more companies wouldn’t avoid building plants to avoid facing similar charges. That would not be good for anybody.

But there are other areas where unionization clearly does not make sense. One is the decision by the Labor Relations Board to reverse a Bush era decision to strip graduate teaching assistants at private universities of their right to bargain collectively. Education is already too expensive, and while one can sympathize with graduate students who are often exploited for cheap labor, the last thing universities need are more labor regulations to complicate the process and raise costs. Most graduate students are already receiving scholarships. Their education is essentially subsidized by society. Allowing them them to unionize will only increase their burden on our institutions of higher education.

Another area where unions don’t make sense is among supervisors of government employees. How can you hold supervisors in government agencies accountable if they can turn to their unions for protection. It is already too difficult to make government agencies accountable.

And when union rules prevent government agencies from hiring and firing in a way that enables them to function efficiently, they undermine the very government agencies we depend on for key services and undercut public support for government.

There is an important role for unions. The are large segments of our workforce that are barely earning a living wage. If unions can help raise their wages to a reasonable level, that’s a good thing. But to the extent that unions extends their efforts in ways that detract from important social goals, they will continue to lose sympathy from the broader public.

That’s what happened in secondary education. The public has begun to believe that teachers and principles have fought for their own welfare at the expense of the students. Rules that protect incompetent teachers, for example, undermined support for teachers unions.

Similarly, the decision of a union to complain about CleanScape’s offer to clean a Seattle public park for free made no sense. If existing systems aren’t keeping our city clean, why complain about a company’s offer to voluntarily clean a park? It’s crazy!

By taking actions like these unions are undermining the support they need from the public to remain relevent.