A Few Words Archives - Half Formed Thoughts 10/9/02

Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay (Wasting Time)

As I write this, the economy of the United States, and by extension the entire universe, is in grave peril. From the lingering ripple effects of the WTC attack? From the huge burden of consumer debt? From the misguided budgetary policy of warmonger Dubya? From the uncertainty caused by widespread corporate fraud? No. Right now the gravest threat to the economy is a few thousand west coast dockworkers who are unhappy with their contracts and have gone on strike.

Actually, I believe that they’re not technically on strike, they’re being locked out by their employers. But they’re being locked out because they were effective having a sit-down strike by purposely reducing their productivity to a minimum until the union got the deal it wanted. I don’t entirely understand it, and I’m sure I don’t want to.

Whatever the reason, the undeniable fact is that boats are not being unloaded, severely impacting just about every industry there is. Except the sex industry, which, at least in the U.S., is not dependent upon imported goods. And the entertainment industry, which, for all intents and purposes, has become a subcategory of the sex industry. Guatemalan oranges are rotting in the Pacific Ocean. (Doesn’t that sound like a line from a Don Henley song? I don’t think it is, but it should be.) Auto factories are closing because they don’t have enough parts to build cars. (If you’re planning to purchase a car during the calendar year of 2003, don’t let the salesman convince you that the steering wheel is an “optional accessory”. It’s not. Neither is the engine.)

Meanwhile, in Boston, thousands of janitors have gone on strike for more full-time jobs, because a majority of them are only working twenty or so hours a week which doesn’t get them benefits. It seems to me a reasonable enough desire, but I’m afraid I don’t follow the logic of the means by which they’re trying to obtain it. What they want is to work more hours per week, and in order to achieve it, they’ve decided to stop working entirely. What am I missing?

I fully support the right of workers to collectively bargain. In many instances it saves time and effort for everyone involved, workers and management alike, to agree on contract terms for all workers. Unions can provide a voice for individual workers who would otherwise have none. There are definitely good things about unions. But their tendency to go on strike is definitely not one.

What the decision to strike comes down to is this: The union and the employer try to agree on acceptable terms of employment. Sometimes they can’t agree, and the union decides that the management offer isn’t good enough for them to work under, so they stop working. Fine, I can respect that. If an employer isn’t going to pay you what you think you’re worth, by all means walk off the job. Quit, and go find a job with another employer who will pay you what you are worth. But when a union goes on strike, the employees don’t quit. They fully expect their jobs to go undone and be there for them as soon as a contract can be worked out. If there are any workers who feel that the current management’s offer is good enough and want to take the wages the strikers feel aren’t enough, they’re considered “scabs” and are usually threatened with physical harm.

Isn’t that fascist? Isn’t that anti-freedom? Isn’t that anti-American? A striking worker has decided that he alone gets to dictate what a job should pay, and if he doesn’t get it, he essentially blackmails his employer into giving him his terms.

I should mention that I feel there is one circumstance under which a strike may be justified, and that is if the employer has a monopoly on a certain group of workers, either through geography, collusion, or if a certain type of work is so highly specialized that it can’t support multiple companies at present. If an employee is essentially forced to work for a single employer, he can easily be exploited and should use any technique necessary to prevent injustice. If the labor market isn’t free, then all bets are off.

But except for that, striking is fundamentally at odds with what made this country great: capitalism. Capitalism is a faith that market forces tend to promote higher production and efficiency, rewarding the smart investor and the person who builds a better mousetrap. The decision to strike is a rejection of the belief in a free market. No worker is worth what he thinks he’s worth. A worker is worth what it would cost to replace him. Any job will pay only as much as people are willing to accept to do it. And that amount is usually related to the amount of skill it requires to do it. A highly skilled job will be harder to fill than an easier job, so the harder job gets paid more. If the part-time Boston janitors really want to get paid more, they ought to think about learning a marketable skill in their spare time. The English language would be a good start.

If the west coast longshoremen really believed that they were worth what they were asking for, they’d quit. If the dock owners can’t find enough people qualified to and willing to unload cargo all day, at the wages they’re offering, they’ll have no choice but to give the current workers what they’re asking for. But I have a feeling that somewhere among the 5.6% of Americans who are currently unemployed there are enough people willing to work. And if the strike doesn’t end soon, it could very well push that number even higher. Can you imagine if the factory workers laid off because the factories can’t get parts from Asia got together and decided that they’d be more than willing to unload boats, putting the longshoremen out of work? Wouldn’t that be the perfect end to this story?

Email Steve with any comments at aenor@aurora.mv.com