by Ray Keating
The Keating Files – June 10, 2020
Confession is good for the soul. So, here goes: This free market economist was once a card-carry member of the Teamsters Union. Wow, I feel better getting that off my chest.
Anyway, some might ask: What’s the problem with labor unions? Plenty, and assorted current events – including squabbling over a plan to bring back baseball – expose the ills of labor unions.
First, it’s important to understand the basic economics of labor unions. That is, labor unions overwhelmingly are about seeking to maximize the compensation of union members and to monopolize employment in an industry or business under a union, while also pushing to minimize the work being performed by those union members. Hmmm, and how does that work out? Of course, it’s a recipe for reduced competitiveness, lost business, lower profits, less investment in unionized businesses, and lost opportunities and jobs for union members over the long run.
Indeed, keep in mind that labor union membership in the early 1950s stood at about 33 percent of employed U.S. workers, and that tumbled to 10.3 percent in 2019. Even more striking has been the decline into irrelevance for unions in the private sector, with private sector union membership falling from 21.2 percent in 1979 to 6.2 percent in 2019.
As investment moves away from unionized businesses, productivity is reduced, which means less earnings for workers and lost profits for owners. Labor unions operate under the mistaken Marxist assumption that workers and business owners are at odds. But in reality, workers and owners rise and fall together.
For example, investments made by owners in facilities, tools, technology and other innovations enhance productivity, which boosts both workers earnings and business profits. In addition, when owners and workers are focused on providing excellent products and customer service, both owners and workers benefit.
This is all Economic 101 and Business 101. But labor unions specialize in ignoring such basic lessons.
On the baseball front, Major League Baseball’s team owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association are working at odds – rather than together – to bring baseball back this season.
Golly, what a surprise. Baseball’s owners and the union have been less than friendly over the years. So, with NASCAR back, the PGA Tour restarting this weekend, the NBA moving ahead with its plan to complete its season in Walt Disney World starting in late July, and the NHL trying to get back on the ice, baseball owners and players publicly bicker.
What’s the beef? Naturally, the MLBPA is trying to squeeze every last cent out of an abbreviated season for its members in the face of grim financial circumstances.
The owners also are at fault for not being able to see early on in this pandemic shutdown that they might be playing without fans this season, and the resulting financial hit. But after the owners woke up to this harsh economic reality, the MLBPA has exhibited no interest in giving a damn, unwilling to revisit a March agreement for fully prorated salaries. Proposals go back and forth – with CBS Sports reporting that the MLBPA tossed out the latest plan for an 89-game season and expanded playoffs – but strife reigns.
Meanwhile, baseball fans suffer, and so does the baseball brand and its goodwill – and that, of course, is bad for baseball and the players. This coronavirus pandemic presented an opportunity for the MLBPA to put aside its archaic union thinking, and do what’s right for fans, for the game, for the business of baseball, and for the long-run well-being of its members. But, no.
It’s a strange thing that one can make the case that the strongest private sector union left in America is the MLBPA – a union representing wealthy athletes that play baseball for a living. Well, if anyone needs a union it would be men playing a children’s game for lots of money – right?
By the way, MLB can implement a season of its own choosing, and there have been rumblings about less than 50 games. That wouldn’t be a big hit with fans – though many would take anything – and the owners would risk further angering the vaunted MLBPA with the current collective bargaining agreement expiring in December 2021.
Team owners and players still have an opportunity to recognize that their fates are tied together. They could step forward in unity to bring back baseball at a time when the country needs it, and by doing so, while taking a short-term financial hit, improve the brand of baseball for the benefit of the game, its customers (the fans), the owners, and the players. It would be smart business, but labor unions have nothing to do with smart business.
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Ray Keating is a columnist, economist, podcaster and entrepreneur. You can order his new book Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York from Amazon or signed books at RayKeatingOnline.com. His other recent nonfiction book is Free Trade Rocks! 10 Points on International Trade Everyone Should Know. Keating also is a novelist. His latest novels are The Traitor: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel, which is the 12th book in the series, and the second edition of Root of All Evil? A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel with a new Author Introduction. The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
Also, tune in to Ray Keating’s podcasts – the PRESS CLUB C Podcast and the Free Enterprise in Three Minutes Podcast
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