Re:Dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas go on strike
by johnnyanmac on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @03:23AM
(#41705546)
>force a higher than market price on said labor. Thus, they are causing dead weight loss to society and making everyone worse off in the base case.
This seems to make an optimistic implication that "market price" is 1) reasonable and 2) realistic. Of course a business wants skilled labor to be paid peanuts to do 168 hours of highly profitable labor a week. But there's multiple layers of barriers here that stop that reality.
For the former, the rising cost of living everywhere is why strikes are starting to happen more frequently now. If you cannot pay your expenses while giving half your waking hours to a job, you either ask for more money or leave. that CoL may or may not be that Companie's fault, but what was reasonable in 2019 is not reasonable in 2024. Yet compensation has fallen far under inflation, let alone what is "reasonable" to survive now.
unions have flaws, but they are made to make sure workers are "reasonably" compensated and treated well. That's how they make things better.
>when one looks at the contracts being offered it's really hard to say labour prices are being pushed below market clearing rate
What are these contracts, and are they reasonable by 2024 standards?
This seems to make an optimistic implication that "market price" is 1) reasonable and 2) realistic. Of course a business wants skilled labor to be paid peanuts to do 168 hours of highly profitable labor a week. But there's multiple layers of barriers here that stop that reality.
For the former, the rising cost of living everywhere is why strikes are starting to happen more frequently now. If you cannot pay your expenses while giving half your waking hours to a job, you either ask for more money or leave. that CoL may or may not be that Companie's fault, but what was reasonable in 2019 is not reasonable in 2024. Yet compensation has fallen far under inflation, let alone what is "reasonable" to survive now.
unions have flaws, but they are made to make sure workers are "reasonably" compensated and treated well. That's how they make things better.
>when one looks at the contracts being offered it's really hard to say labour prices are being pushed below market clearing rate
What are these contracts, and are they reasonable by 2024 standards?