Question

Describe Pernicious Monopoly Traditions as theories of the Labor Movement.

Answer 1

Pernicious Monopoly Traditions as theories of the Labor Movement.

The post-war period witnessed the rise of a most reactionary organisation within the trade union movement. The most influential theory opposed to the labor movement comes from the neo-classical tradition in economics. According to Henry simons trade unions as organized monopolies of the most dangerous sort. They operate to restrict output and raise costs, he asserts. As consumers we all lose due to the resulting inefficiency. But labor unions are not simply monopolies they are particularly harmful kind which enjoy an unprecedented freedom and ability to engage them to hold industrial capital hostage while they progressively destroy the industry through excessive labor costs. The consumer is exploited through the exorbitant mined; unions form a violent , aggressive special interest which usurps all substantive power. The resulting unstable economy and social system is not compatible with democracy. His underlying theoretical model of trade unionism is fundamentally mistaken because it misses the political character of unions. But, according to Freeman and Medoff who criticizes the anti-union theories for being one-sided and factually incorrect. They argued that unions have two faces one the monopolistic who are so prominently featured in anti-union theories , add a collective voice.

While the monopolistic role of unions is undeniable, it had been greatly exaggerated, they claim. In fact, unions overall are a force for equality. Furthermore, unions provide a voice for workers in corporate decision-making. This union voice in turn alters the operations of the workplace and the enterprise in virtually every other measurable way, and the vast majority of these changes are positive from the point of view of social policy. The problem arises so long as organization s partial and precarious, so long as most unions face substantial competition, or so long as they must exercise monopoly powers sparingly because of organizational insecurity. Weak unions have no large monopoly powers. In an economy the division of labor, every large organized group is in a position at any time to disrupt or to stop the whole flow of social income. A paradigm had emerged in public sector industrial relations wherein the public sector unions would grow and enjoy excessive powers because they share in the monopoly power of their employers. As a result , the political influence of public workers or their monopolistic position in the political market place would result in the excessive allocation of resources to public needs- if not in wages, then in excessive public employment which led to employee strike with great alarm. It became clear to most trade unionists that this would have left the workers at the mercy of the employers, of ruthless exploitation and oppression by the monopolies. A struggle so commenced throughout the movement against the groupers and their policies. Already “greater productivity” has led to displacement of workers in a number of industries but no improvement in living standards.