For the third year in a row, a union that is trying to organize Walmart employees will strike this week. For the third year in a row, you will not see them.
The union says Walmart pays too little. But there are workers who work at Walmart: 1.3 million of them.
If Walmart pays too little, why are there any workers? Why don’t they work somewhere that pays them more? Could it be that this is because no one will pay them more for equally skilled work?
If Walmart and workers want to do a deal with each other, why should a group of workers make it illegal for Walmart and other workers to make such deals? Because the National Labor Relations Board will say so if 50% of the employees, plus one worker, so vote. The losers will be compelled to let the union bargain for wages.
Fortunately, the labor union movement is dead. Membership peaked in 1955 at a little over a quarter of American workers in unions.
The union will lose. The strikers will not be visible. But the last remnant of an old movement still try to get the federal government involved.
