Workers’ Paradise?

The expansion of global trade eroded the status of national and local unions. Yet as many workers in the world’s wealthiest nations worry about the status of their jobs, politicians who want to win and stay in office increasingly respond to the anxiety by pandering to unions. “After decades of vilification by economists for raising unemployment and strangling growth, the union movement is now receiving backing from thought leaders such as Paul Krugman, who argues that stronger unions are needed to counter globalization's worst excesses,” explains Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard professor and former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund, in an essay for the Korea Times. Union membership has declined in wealthy nations like the US in recent decades, partly because employers and workers both worry about inflexible rules and wage rates that promote the status quo, failing to reward innovation or skill. Unions could better serve workers and the public at large by focusing less on limiting global trade through petty arguments and more on actively working to improve human rights along with environmental and safety conditions. – YaleGlobal