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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

> Ah yes, the teamsters... who will no longer have to compete with independents.

Not to overstate the obvious, but that's pretty much the entire point of unions: by working collectively, individuals aren't directly competing against each other, forcing management to pay higher wages, with the goal being that the wages paid are higher than any individual could make if the union didn't exist.

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Thus avoiding a race to the bottom where truckers drive all day just to feed themselves and our insatiable desire for free shipping.

By preventing large numbers of people from working at all.

Joining unions is impossible for many. I once lost a job because the union insisted that I be let go rather than let me join. It was not a performance issue.

What if someone is perfectly happy to drive for $1 less than the union negotiated? Why would you use the force of government, police with guns, to keep them from selling their labor a dollar cheaper. Especially when they’re perfectly happy to do so?

Always darkly humorous when people openly support using force to control how people sell their labor in a very strict sense, which is certainly kissing cousins with slavery.

Yeah, governments setting a market bottom is definitely similar to unpaid, forced labour.

Welcome to America, where we neither practice true Capitalism nor true Democracy contrary to widespread opinion.

> forcing management to pay higher wages,

Independent truckers don't have management. They make more money and don't pay union dues. That's the whole point, and why the Teamsters want them gone.

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