Unions cripple companies. They thwart efficient government. They drive up prices and drive down service levels. They are anti-technology, anti-productivity, and pro-wage growth. They live in a virtual reality where price points, product-market pressures, and capital returns dont matter. They need to be abolished.
A truism in the global economy is that the country with the highest rate of unionization loses. No sane person is going to invest capital, take risks and innovate if they are handing out money to union members who cant be fired, disciplined, or force to use profit enhancing technologies. Companies that are nimble, highly productive and innovative will produce enough wealth to pay people properly. There is no need in the modern era for unions. There is no need in the modern era for large unionized government either.
Put it this way. Employment rates, wealth per capita, productivity and innovation are directly and negatively correlated with the size of government and the % of the population which work in unions. Europe? 45-50% of Europes GDP is eaten by unionized government. European union rates run at 3 x US levels and are 10-20% higher than Canadian levels. The result? Lower living standards, less people working, dead economies, no productivity, 8 week vacation periods and ever escalating union backed demands for higher wages.
Worse the OECD concludes that practically all [97 percent] of European civilian job creation has been in the government sector in the past few years. As government size increases, including government backed monopolies and oligopolies, unionization grows, and hours worked fall. Unions are adept at demanding the highest dollar for the least amount of time worked. As worker costs escalate firms cut back on technology, plant investments and business process improvements. Eventually these firms might fail.
