Unions are on Frontlines of Fight against Inequality
The Boston Globe cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on labor unions.
And even when workers are unionized, they are often forced to bargain away the rights of future hires, noted Trey Kovacs, a policy analyst at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. In negotiations with Stop & Shop, for instance, the United Food & Commercial Workers union accepted lower pension benefits and a delay in Sunday time-and-a-half pay for future employees. Following a six-month lockout in Massachusetts by National Grid, the United Steelworkers gave up pensions for new hires.
“You’ve created a subclass of future workers,” Kovacs said. “If they want to take this job, they’ll never have the same benefits of the people that they work alongside.”