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After the filming, Bob made an interesting comment that unionization in one workplace could have beneficial effects in other workplaces because the management might increase wages to discourage unionization within their own companies.  In other words, the existence of unionization in the economy is beneficial for everyone as a floating hammer that could come down on bad bosses if they don’t work hard enough to seem like good bosses.

It seems to me that such an argument actually reinforces my point about the importance of a healthy economy in which the government doesn’t make it difficult to start companies and experiment with business models.  If jobs are plentiful, and if it’s possible for somebody to work independently in a particular business without having to become an expert on jumping through hoops, then businesses will fear that their employees will leave, and that their most-skilled employees will both leave and compete.

In a region with as heavy a union culture as Rhode Island, the labor unions are a drag on the economy in general and, indeed, actively lobby for regulations that make it more difficult for workers to start their own businesses and for companies to experiment with their use of labor and their compensation. After all, it’s possible for workers to compete with the unions, too, and if they find better ways to do things, such that their employees don’t feel the need to unionize, then the unions lose market share.

In the long run, that hurts all workers for the benefit of a shrinking few.