The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.
Well, I'm not trying to get rid of the unions, but I am saying that they appear to be an antiquated concept in today's economy.
Unions can play a valuable role in large organisations where it is difficult to talk to a thousand people. They can negotiate annual pay awards with management, represent grievance cases, and explain and advise on complicated changes in employment or pension law.
Now workers should have the right to join unions. But unions should not be forced upon workers. And unions should not have the power to take money our of their members' paychecks to buy the support of politicians that are favored by the union bosses.
Unions, by and large, are democratic organizations with freely chosen leaders and policies determined by the membership. They concern themselves with individual dignity not only in their aims but in their method. We have no better example of what is worthy of emulation abroad than the workings of a good union.
Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished.
I sometimes think that unions don't understand that we live in a free society, and people have the right to not select union representation if they don't want it.
There is nothing that says unions have a God-given right to be there. We have to work at it and make ourselves relevant to every section of the workforce.
What until then seemed impossible to achieve has become a fact of life. We have won the right to association in trade unions independent from the authorities, founded and shaped by the working people themselves.
People have to be reminded that unions played a very historic role in our economy.
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