Why the unions are good for us

Abstract

Trade unions come in for a lot of abuse these days, and there is increasing anti-union feeling in the community generally.

This is largely the unions own fault. They are not very good at telling people what they are doing, and they have a tendency to be stubborn and unreasonable. Moreover, most economists are by now agreed that to a greater or lesser extent unions act as monopolists of labour supply, and play an important contributory role in the causation of unemployment. The times are long gone when unions were considered beyond criticism within the Labor Party, and criticism outside it could be dismissed as flowing from political or class prejudice.