Unions Are Corporations, Too

The rampant anti-corporatism in America today is somewhat infuriating to me.  The notion that corporations can only prosper by cheating the people is as old (and illogical) as government itself.  Successful businessmen will almost universally tell you integrity, honesty, and hard work are the keys to success.  He who cheats his customers rarely has any repeat business and it is repeat business that drives long-term economic success, not short-term profits.

Unions Are For-Profit Entities

But that’s a rant for another post.  The most maddening consequence of the anti-corporate movement, in my eyes, is the resulting pro-union bias.  Everybody hates the big bad corporation but loves the labor union movement.  Well, what’s the difference?  Unions are corporations too.  They are in the business of selling labor.  Don’t believe me?  Try not paying your union dues and see what happens.  You think the union bosses will take pity on you let you stick around anyway?  Fat chance.  That is because unions are inherently for-profit entities. 

“Huh???”  you might ask?  “But I thought unions were not-for-profit?”  Well, that depends on whom you’re talking about.  While labor unions have no outside shareholders, they do have well-defined stakeholders in the form of union membership, just like any other corporation.  Also just like any other corporations, those stakeholders seek to maximize their own benefit.  Take the United Auto Workers union, for example.  The UAW union is no more or less a corporation than General Motors (GM), Ford (F), or Microsoft (MSFT).  Ford, as everybody knows, seeks to maximize profit for shareholders both over the short- and long-term.  Likewise, unions simply seek to maximize the welfare of its members, who are the union’s shareholders in all but name.  Does the connection between shareholder and union membership seem a bit abstract and tenuous for you?  It shouldn’t.  There are many employee- and customer-owned  corporations in America with a few of the most popular being Vanguard and State Farm Insurance.  The structure of these corporations is legally, logically, and morally almost identical to that of most labor unions.  Seen in this light, to be both anti-corporate and pro-union is an internally illogical position.  They are one and the same. 

The Same Rules Should Apply To Unions And Corporations Alike

Now I’m not arguing against the need for a mechanism for workers to bargain collectively and I’m in no way trying to diminish what unions have accomplished for all workers over the years (although said union accomplishments are far smaller than is often reckoned).  What I am arguing, however, is that unions are no different than any other corporation and should be treated as such by the law.  Anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior which would never in a million years be tolerated in the corporate sector are sanctioned by the government and form the basis of the very livelihood of many labor unions.  Tomorrow, I will explore the problem of the monopolistic labor union and reveal exactly why these entities are harmful to the very workers they claim to fight for and indeed all of society.