Over at Feministe, there is a very interesting post and discussion about labor unions, and some of the common arguments against them (and the rebuttals). I recommend the post, because it is fairly interesting, but I would like to point out one other reason why you should unionize when possible: if you unionize, you have the ability to get a stake in the legal process.
Today in my contracts class we learned about the NIPSCO v. Carbon Coal County. I will do my utmost to avoid the boring parts of the story, and stay away from the legalese, but no promises to the effect.
The long and short of it was this: NIPSCO was a utility provider for Northern Indiana. Like most (all?) utility companies, it was a natural monopoly, so it was overseen by the government. NIPSCO went in for a 20 year contract with Carbon Coal Company, which set a basement, but not a ceiling. The price of the coal went shooting up, and NIPSCO wanted to transfer the price to its customers. The utility commission went “No, find your fuel from somewhere else”. NIPSCO wanted to break out of its contract with Carbon Coal County. Carbon Coal County went “Dude, you’re my only customer- you break out, we lose all are money, and we have to shut down” and then took everyone to court.
Well, the court went “NIPSCO, pay the nice Carbon Coal County 181 million dollars, and we’ll call it square”. Carbon Coal County went “Nuh-uh, we want the contract fulfilled, look at all the people we’re putting out of a job if we pack up and go away?” The court goes “Um, no. They broke the contract, you’ve already closed the factory, it would be ridiculous and really, really expensive to open it again, and have NIPSCO fulfill the contract. You got your damages, leave us alone”.
During the discussion of the case, it was asked if the workers got some of that 181 million dollars, and the answer was of course “no”. I asked if workers could sue for breach of contract, or breach of duty and the professor answered thusly:
“Only if they were contracted could they sue for breach of contract, and I’m guessing they were almost all at-will employees. As for breach of duty, there is a really high standard for evidence… The only way they (the workers) could have benefited from this, that I can think of is if they had a union formed, and then they would have a third-party interest in the contract that they could have negotiated for.”
In other words, with no union, you have no protection if your company makes stupid decisions, because you don’t have a voice in that decision.
So, to recap: NIPSCO (or rather their insurance company) is out 181 million dollars, Carbon Coal County is out of a business, and lots and lots of workers are out of a job, and by extension, a few towns are dead. NIPSCO was an idiot for signing onto a contract that didn’t have a ceiling in it, Carbon Coal County was stupid for only having one contract, and the workers were stupid for not unionizing. Of the three of them, the one least capable of surviving the losses is the group that not only suffered the most for them, they also didn’t make the decision in the first place.
Capitalism- it’s not for the workers.