Labor Day and labor unions

Excerpts from Wikipedia on Labor Day

...began in 1882, originating from a desire by the Central Labor Union to create a day off for the "working man"...[and] became a federal holiday by Act of Congress in 1894. [It] has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families...This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday...Today Labor Day is often regarded simply as a day of rest...

Labor unions are a decreasing focus of Labor Day. But they were responsible for its genesis and are still a significant piece of the holiday's focus. To an economist, labor unions are simply a cartels in a labor market. Like OPEC, they seek to restrict supply in order to achieve artificially high prices/wages. Like OPEC, they must worry about competition from within the cartel (cheating on the collusive arrangement) and from without (those not in the cartel who seek to undercut their high prices/costs).

OPEC has the advantage of operating in a natural resource market where it's easier to control competition. Labor unions make up for this with their active use of the government to restrict their competition-- in both labor and product markets. Unions promote trade restrictions to lessen competition for the products they make. Unions promote minimum wages and prevailing wages to increase the price of their labor market competition-- and mandatory licensing, child labor laws, tighter enforcement on illegal immigration, and lower quotas on legal immigration to lock out potential competitors. In addition to the use of government force, they are well-known for their use of threats and coercion against potential labor market competition (especially in the past).

Labor unions are fine. But in a reasonably competitive labor market, I'm not fond of their political agenda-- which strives to benefit them and their politicians at the expense of consumers and, ironically, other workers. Happy Labor Day to all workers!