It’s very common these days for people defending labor unions and their tactics to act as if labor unions are a free-market phenomenon in the United States. In fact, labor unions have massive state privileges and their supporters won’t tell you about them. They ignore these privileges and act as if they are merely voluntary organizations.
As you might expect, even a cursory examination of labor law in the United States shows this narrative is completely false. The privileges and special treatments that labor unions receive from the state are very significant, and any economist worth his or her salt will tell you so.
I decided to make a video about some of these privileges and give some details and additional sources for anyone interested in learning more.
Enjoy!
Links for more info:
Forgotten Facts of American Labor History, by Tom Woods
https://mises.org/library/forgotten-facts-american-labor-history
Paper by Morgan O. Reynolds in J. Libertarian Studies
https://cdn.mises.org/6_3_3_0.pdf
Episode 1019 of the Tom Woods Show:
https://www.tomwoods.com/1019
Update: This video is now also available on YouTube.