Suppose you are among those who believe that the NLRA should be deregulated. Justify your position and describe how labor-management concerns would be addressed under your proposed model of labor relations.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The perspective that the NLRA should be repealed or deregulated stems from a mainstream economics model and the ethics of libertarianism. Unions present a barrier to free markets by exercising monopoly power over labor. They cause harmful economic effects by artificially raising wages higher than the competitive market would sustain. As such, the NLRA reduces aggregate wealth, forces unwilling employers to negotiate wages that make them less profitable, and force workers to pay dues when they would prefer not to belong to a union. Unions should be subject to the same antitrust regulations that limit other business organizations from engaging in anticompetitive practices. However, a true free market perspective suggests that explicit restrictions should not be placed on unions - if they have the economic power to push their demands in a free market, they should be allowed to do so. In this regard, the deregulation perspective is not that different from Great Britain's system of voluntarism.