Category: Labor

I have a post up at the Atlantic. Check it out.

New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: This has been a blockbuster week for the Supreme Court to say the least. With DOMA, Proposition 8, Title VII, and affirmative action decisions dominating the coverage, few have taken note of the Supreme Court’s move on Monday to grant review to a set of cases that could strike… Continue reading Policy Shop: SCOTUS and the Uncertain Future of Organized Labor

As I mentioned in a prior post, I am going to be playing around with monthly Current Population Survey microdata to produce some datasets of interest to me. Today I decided to look into what percent of the employed adult civilian population answered that they were absent from work due to a labor dispute. The… Continue reading Neat labor strike data from the CPS

So I already wrote about right-to-shirk (aka right-to-work) laws, and made the basic freedom of contract argument. By its functional operation, right-to-shirk laws prevent two parties (a union and an employer) from agreeing to certain terms. I am not actually interested in the argument itself; I just raise it to mock the hypocrisy of libertarians… Continue reading Some musings about freedom and right-to-shirk laws

So the Michigan lower house has decided to pass a right-to-work bill. This is a pretty standard right-wing maneuver over the last few decades. The idea is to make it impossible for unions to negotiate closed shops, which creates a free rider problem that will ultimately lead to their demise. That is good for owners… Continue reading Right-to-work is big government