[jyl]

While reading this interesting thread, I came up with a theory that the traditional union is most needed when an industry is concentrated, most of the employees are not highly skilled, and there is a surplus of labor. Kind of like the steel industry in the Depression, which if my vague memory of history class serves, is when the US union movement realy started. There were a few hugely powerful companies, most steelworkers could be replaced by a new employee without a long training period, and there were lots of unemployed workers ready to step in. Without the union the steel companies would have ground their employees into dust.

If this theory is true, maybe there's a place for unions in the grocery industry and some other industries.

Maybe I'm trying too hard to find a reason for some unions to exist. I'm mostly hostile to unions, which I see as barriers to businesses getting lean and competitive, as well as often corrupt. The longshoremen's union comes most readily to mind - there's a reason why US ports are far less efficient than they could be. But at the same time I look at WalMart and how it is squeezing its employees, and I look at my local supermarket checkout lady and think that she should have a decent life. I think a little ashamedly about how the financial markets l-o-v-e it when companies do lots of layoffs - we applaud the management and send their options up, then clamour for more RIFs - and I get a little bit less hostile to unions.