The Multinational Monitor reported earlier in the year that nationwide union membership rates are dropping drastically, and laid part of the blame on company intimidation. One in five union officers were illegally fired in 2005, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Companies can get away with it because the National Labor Relations Board is perceived to be biased on the side of employers and because, even if you win your case, the penalties against the company are trivial. Manufacturing is the worst case, because employers can threaten to move their businesses to China and elsewhere. 75 % of all employers facing an union organizing drive employ labor " consultants" (a.k.a union busters) who specialize in running expensive and sophisticated PR campaigns along the lines "Don’t be a loser – stay union-free". This all helps explain why the old middle classes have found that their income has stalled for the last generation.
I believe that people should be allowed to protect their jobs and their income to the best of their ability by organizing in a union if they need to, but to do so while ensuring the success of the business. When I ran a business I adopted the attitude that if the workforce tried to join a union I personally had failed.
Libertarians seem to think (correct me if I am wrong) that the market is sancrosanct and that unions = socialism (shudder!), if not communism. All rights should be on the side of corporations and their bosses. Making money unimpeded by society is almost a religious obligation. What would Epicurus have thought?
He would have been on the side of free association, I beleive, and probably for the right of the employer to fire all union members. It’s win-win!