Great Britain Bans Federal Worker Collective Bargaining
I am pleased to report the end of collective bargaining at the national level. Unfortunately, I am talking about the UK, not the US, and also unfortunately, local wage bargaining will remain in place.
The Telegraph reports National pay rates will be scrapped in budget.
Millions of teachers, nurses, civil servants and other public sector workers are to lose their right to national pay rates, the Chancellor George Osborne will announce in next week’s Budget.
George Osborne will say that public sector employees in poorer parts of the country should have their pay frozen until it is brought into line with local private sector workers.
Mr Osborne originally intended to introduce local pay rates in April 2013, but has decided to bring the plans forward by a year in an attempt to boost growth.
The move is likely to be met with a furious response from unions, which are already threatening industrial action over cuts to pensions.
The Chancellor will publish figures that show that in some parts of England and Wales public sector workers earn almost a fifth more than those in equivalent jobs in the private sector.
The Treasury argues that the pay gap leaves private companies struggling to compete for the best staff against public sector organisations, whose workers also enjoy better pensions and job security.
The National Union of Teachers said it was calling a one-day strike in London on March 28 as the next step in its pensions campaign. Mr Osborne, however, is determined to push ahead with the reforms to pay and pensions. The Treasury wants to base the plans on a local-pay system introduced for staff in courts under the previous government.
This is a start, but if you are going to incur the wrath of labor unions, and Chancellor Osborne surely will, then you may as well go all out. The correct move is to end bargaining altogether. If unions don’t like it, too bad. If they can make more in the private sector, they can go for it.
Public unions bankrupted Greece, they will bankrupt Spain, they have the UK and the US on the verge of ruin, and they have bankrupted numerous US cities already.
Correct Policy Trifecta
- End public union collective bargaining completely
- End all prevailing wages laws including Davis Bacon
- Institute National Right-to-Work Laws
Unlike parimutuel horse-racing bets, any order will suffice.
About the author: Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for Sitka Pacific Capital Management. His top-rated global economics blog Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis offers insightful commentary every day of the week. He is also a contributing “professor” on Minyanville, a community site focused on economic and financial education. Every Thursday he does a podcast on HoweStreet and on an ad hoc basis he contributes to many other websites, including UnionWatch.