Are labor unions monopolies?

Labor Unions. Monopolies? A prominent economist says, "Yes, but-" by Charles Έ. Lindblom causes the cost of living to rise? One story is that prices are pushed up under inter- mittent but ineluctable union pressure on wages. The possibility that this is indeed a true story adds fuel to old fires. read more

Since there are methods in place for choosing another labor union to represent your workplace, or to decertify a union who represents your workplace and have no union at all, I have a hard time buying Mr. Fair's assessment that labor unions are monopolies. Unions don't sell themselves to employers, but employees. read more

But in all of our recent conversations about labor unions, I haven't heard the most basic argument against them: a labor union is a monopoly. No one likes a monopoly. Except the monopolist, of course. And sometimes the government. You might think that everyone else is opposed to cartels in principle. read more

Labor unions are also monopolists. But, like our worker cooperative, they cannot issue shares that allow members to divide the profits by some pre-arranged formula. So they have to find some other way to deal with the distributional problem of how to divide the economic rents--the increment of wages above the competitive level--among all its members. read more