Authors libby rittenberg 762
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"Monopoly Factor Supply". The firm will charge a price Pmequal to
the MRP of the factor and sell Qm units of the factor.
Unions
Workers in a competitive market receive a wage equal to their MRP. If they
face monopsony power, they get less. Regardless of the market structure,
workers are likely to seek higher wages and better working conditions.
One way they can try to improve their economic status is to organize into
a labor union, an association of workers that seeks to raise wages and to
improve working conditions. Unions represent their members
in collective bargaining, a process of negotiation of worker contracts
between unions and employers. To strengthen its position, a union may
threaten a strike—a refusal by union members to work—unless its
demands are met.
A Brief History of Unions
Workers have united to try to better their lot at least since the Middle
Ages, when the first professional guilds were formed in Europe. In the
United States, “workingmen’s societies” sprang up in the late eighteenth
century. These organizations were craft unions uniting skilled workers in
the same trade in an attempt to increase wages, shorten working hours,
and regulate working conditions for their members.
One goal unions consistently sought was a closed shop, where only union
members can be hired—an arrangement that gives unions monopoly
power in the supply of labor. A second objective was to gain greater
political and economic strength by joining together associations of
Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen
Saylor URL: />
Saylor.org
762
