If a phone company (say Bezeq) were to declare that only Bezeq phone lines can be used in Israel, and that they alone will set the price for those phone lines, would the market accept that? Of course not—as has been proven in recent years.
So why we should we accept that only members of labor unions can be hired for specific jobs, and that every worker must be paid according to a unionized payscale?
If a labor union maintains a monopoly on all labor to be provided across an entire sector of the economy, and also sets the wages to be paid across that entire sector, then it should be treated as a corporation or cartel that creates a monopoly on products provided across an entire sector and sets the prices to be paid across the entire sector. Labor is the product, and wages is the product price.
Labor unions should ensure humane treatment of employees, fair firing practices, timely payment of wages, accessibility of information, non-discrimination, and other basic rights in the employment framework. However, once a union restricts employment eligibility and regulates employee wages, it turns itself into an anti-competitive monopoly.
In Israel, this problem is nowhere more pronounced than in the market for professors. Professors are highly skilled workers whose compensation should be determined by merit. However, the anti-competitive professors’ union prevents non-union members from being hired as senior professors, and regulates the salary of every professor. Professor Zvi Hacohen, head of the professors union, has expressed absolute opposition to personal contracts for professors, even if used only in rare cases to stop the brain drain (see article here).
To slow the brain drain and improve quality of teaching at Israeli universities, Israel must enable universities to attract star professors. Israeli professors are fighting attempts by the universities to use meritocratic pay to slow the brain drain. In controlling wages and restricting employment eligibility to union members, the Israeli professors union has become one of the main obstacles to reversing the brain drain.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:28 am
And now the rumor is that following this strike the adjuncts are planning on stirking, to be followed by another student stirke.
December 26th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Here is an article about professor wages: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/916352
Quote from this article:
“An industrious lecturer and one who is not as hard-working are paid in the same manner, so it’s no wonder that industrious and talented lecturers leave the country.”
I do not understand why the talented, hard working professors support their union. Maybe the answer is simple: they vote with their feet against the union by leaving the Israeli university system for industry, academia abroad, or private colleges.
December 31st, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Mmm, socialism. Partial solution - private universities like the IDC, provided they don’t require unionization too.
I had some nice ideas about how to fix the educational system and brain drain by raising more money for fancy chaired professorships by hitting up American philanthropists for donations. Guess that’s not so viable right now.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:52 am
[…] Unions as Monopolies […]
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