A free labor market leads to increased production, which is the same as economic growth, the opposite of recession. It does so by putting more people to work. When more people are working, more is produced. A high rate of employment also reduces certain social costs, such as the cost of unemployment compensation and welfare and the cost to society of crimes committed by people idled and impoverished by unemployment. The reduction in the costs of unemployment compensation, welfare and prisons decreases the total tax burden, as does the reduction in salaries of government workers and teachers when they can no longer engage in collective bargaining. In addition, the tax burden of individuals is reduced by spreading it to a larger number of working taxpayers. Taxes are also reduced with the elimination of no longer needed government agencies. Federal agencies include: National Labor Relations Board. From their website (www.nlrb.gov): The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. . . The NLRB is organized into two major components: a five-member governing Board, and the Office of the General Counsel. . . The Agency's headquarters are located in Washington, D.C. It has field offices in 51 U.S. locations. Office of Labor-Management Standards. From their website (www.dol.gov/olms): The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) of the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration administers and enforces most provisions of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA). The LMRDA was enacted primarily to ensure basic standards of democracy and fiscal responsibility in labor organizations representing employees in private industry. Unions representing U.S. Postal Service employees became subject to the LMRDA with the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Federal Labor Relations Authority. From their website (www.flra.gov): The Federal Labor Relations Authority is an independent administrative federal agency that was created by Title VII of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (also known as the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute). The Statute allows certain non-postal federal employees to organize, bargain collectively, and to participate through labor organizations of their choice in decisions affecting their working lives. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. From their website (www.fmcs.gov): The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was created by the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act) as an independent agency of the U. S. government. The agency is given the mission of preventing or minimizing the impact of labor-management disputes on the free flow of commerce by providing mediation, conciliation and voluntary arbitration. FMCS’ Office of Arbitration Services maintains a roster of approximately 1,400 independent arbitrators who are qualified to hear and decide disputes over the interpretation or application of collective bargaining agreements. State agencies include: Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC), part of the Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth (www.michigan.gov/dleg). This is from MERC’s website: The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) resolves labor disputes involving public and private sector employees by appointing mediators, arbitrators and fact finders, conducting union representation elections, determining appropriate bargaining units, and adjudicating unfair labor practice cases. MERC, supported by the staff of the Bureau of Employment Relations, administers three statutes:
Unemployment Insurance Agency. Formerly known as the Michigan Employment Security Commission, this agency could not be eliminated, but would be drastically reduced in size if the unemployment rate were cut from 15% to 2 or 3% - from a half a million unemployed to a few thousand. From its website (www.michigan.gov/uia): The Wagner-Peyser Act (1933) requires states to maintain a national system of public employment offices, while the Social Security Act (1935) levies a federal tax on employers to provide for the payment of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. . . The UIA's Tax Office maintains tax accounts for about 213,000 contributing employers and 5,300 reimbursing employers, and collects about $1.4 billion a year in Michigan unemployment taxes from employers. . . Today, the UIA pays out about $1.7 billion a year in regular UI benefits. Office of the State Employer. The Office of the State Employer, in cooperation with Executive Branch Departments and Agencies, formulates, executes and administers labor relations policies for state classified employees. Centralized labor relations functions include the following:
Society also benefits from the elimination of costs directly attributed to collective bargaining:
Production losses aren’t the only costs resulting from strikes. The employer is not the only one hurt. Customers and other innocent bystanders are often inconvenienced. Travelers are stranded when public transportation workers strike. Children’s education is set back when teachers strike. Shoppers are inconvenienced when grocery store workers strike. Public health is endangered when garbage collectors strike. And people die. This is from When Nurses Strike in New York, an article in the May 3, 2010 issue of Newsweek:
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