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Daily News – Saturday, February 22, 2014 4A Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Opinion Three decades ago this month, the economists Richard B. Freeman and James Medoff published a classic book, "What Do Unions Do?" If they wrote it today, they would have to call it "What Did Unions Do?" Unions are dying in the Unit- ed States. The share of private- sector workers who are union members dropped from about 35 percent in the 1950s to 6.7 per- cent in 2013. That gradual decline was highlighted Friday, when workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, Tenn., plant voted against unionization by a count of 712 to 626. That loss was more than just symbolic. The United Auto Workers framed it, as Alec MacGillis of the New Republic has pointed out, as a fight for "the future of organized labor." That was only a slight exaggera- tion. A win in Tennessee would have also made it far easier to unionize Southern auto plants, where the future of the U.S. industry lies. Trying to pin this on Republi- cans like Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker or Gov. Bill Haslam — both of whom made public threats against the workers if they unionized — won't get you very far. Unions have been undermined by a combination of worker hostility and the rising power of capital over labor. Their demise raises a question: Is the U.S. better off without them? Freeman and Medoff's con- clusion still stands. Unions have two roles to play in the Ameri- can economy: They balance power between employers and workers, and they provide a voice for workers that manage- ment can hear. Freeman and Medoff thought the first role was important but not entirely positive, and they're right. Union power comes from turning labor into a cartel. Although it helps union mem- bers, it's inefficient and bad for the economy as a whole, and it's especially bad for nonunion workers. But that's not the union's only job, Freeman and Medoff responded — their role as a worker voice reduces job turnover and may boost produc- tivity. That end is unambiguous- ly good. Whether to mourn unions depends on whether you believe the good outweighs the bad. Wherever you land on that ques- tion, though, the U.S. must find ways to replace what good unions did. It must restore power to labor in a world with- out Labor. And that couldn't be much more urgent. Workers' share of income, which until recently had been so stable that fundamental economic models are premised on its stability, is plummeting. Wage growth and median incomes seem locked in a slow- to no- growth zone. The strength of capital seems ever greater than of labor; just take a look at corporate profits. "There is this nagging sense that the loss of the union has happened with the rise of inequality, the rise of money, that somehow it's created an imbalance in society," Freeman told me in a phone interview. "That sense is right. We need some other way that restores power to workers." What the Chattanooga defeat should tell us is that labor unions probably can't be an answer to those problems. Economic change, particularly the rise of global competition, killed them. U.S. policy must aim to replace unions, not revive them. One replacement might focus narrowly on the role of unions Freeman and Medoff gave their highest praise: worker voice. Economics bloggers Adam Ozimek and Matt Ygle- sias, for example, have recom- mended that the change U.S. labor laws to allow for "works councils" in nonunion work- places. That's the model Volkswagen wanted to bring to America. And, had U.S. law not prohibit- ed them, they would have done so. They are small organizations that create a forum for worker- management communication at the level of the individual shop or factory. The lawmakers of the 1930s feared they would crowd out unions, a concern that's no longer relevant without any unions to crowd out. The U.S. should change that law. "Works councils have been very successful in Europe, help- ing employers and employees discuss problems in a non- con- flictual way," Freeman said. Another smart response would be to stop businesses from abusing labor laws by clas- sifying their employees as inde- pendent contractors. This trick gets the employer off the hook for payroll taxes, exempts them from overtime and minimum wage rules, and weakens the employees' legal protection against discrimination. President Barack Obama's Labor Depart- ment can do this by itself, though Congress could help by clarifying the legal distinction between employee and indepen- dent contractor. Freeman also had a recommendation of his own: passing laws that encourage employee ownership of compa- nies and profit- sharing agreements. To rebuild labor's share, he sug- gests, help labor play capital's game. Yet nobody thinks these incremental ideas are enough to restore the power of labor. That will take some bigger policy guns: monetary and fiscal poli- cies aimed at full employment. A new book by economists Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein showed that workers do best — their inflation-adjusted incomes rise most quickly — in times when labor markets are tight. And while there's no shortage of options on this front, my view remains that the Federal Reserve should lead the way by estab- lishing a policy target for the level of nominal income in the U.S. economy. By stabilizing nominal income, the Fed can keep the U.S. closer to full employment without hampering its goal of low and stable infla- tion. In a modern open economy, full employment is the only way to give workers true power. Unions can no longer solve labor's woes. That's not terrible, because the way unions gave workers power created its own problems. Yet the U.S. will be much worse off without labor unions if it doesn't replace what they once did. Evan Soltas is a contributor to Bloomberg View. Follow him on Twitter at @esoltas. Is the US better off without unions? Not exactly Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Guest View Evan Soltas STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558- 3160; E-mail: governor@gov- ernor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Wash- ington, DC 20515, 202-225- 3076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393- 0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Your officials Disgusted with Fair Board mess Editor: It was a sad day for Red Bluff when the Fair Board decided to basically fire Mark Eidman who had done a great job managing the Tehama Fair for 13 years even now with the loss of state funds. Some county fairs will not be able to survive with the loss of state funding, but up to this point our Fair was doing well. I have been working with mark with a display we set up of antique trucks and find him to be pleasant, considerate and dedicated to try to make our fair a success. The only justification the board seems to mention is just that they want to change direc- tion. If that is true, why is this direction not talked about, and why didn't they just point Mark in the new direction and make this direction public? This is supposed to be our fair and the people of Tehama County should have a say in the direction of the fair. It appears to me that it is purely politics in action and some type of power play by some board members who are working to build their own empire. The editorial of Feb. 7 surely hit the nail on the head, and I thank the editorial board for its opinion. We the people of Tehama County do not get to vote the fair board members in, as they are appointed by the governor and it appears that the fair board really doesn't give a damn what the people of Tehama County want. That was obvious when so many people attended the last meeting to support Mark Eid- man and the board seemed to not really care about their opin- ion. If you are disgusted with this mess, you might consider writ- ing the governor to suggest that the Fair Board members that caused this should themselves be fired. The next Fair Board Meeting is scheduled to be Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Tehama Room at the fairgrounds. If you are unhappy with the firing — he was given the choice of retiring or being fired — of Mark Eidman and the unknown new direction, you might consider attending this meeting. Milton Nichols, Red Bluff Rancho Tehama corruption Editor: Today I learned the Rancho Tehama Association placed my home in foreclosure to recover my $455 delinquency, plus $1,695 in late fees. This is despite my 12 years of prompt payments and informing them of my tempo- rary hardship from the state's precluding me from working since 2009. That is, by effecting the confiscation of my vehicles and worktools for information it obtained from seizing my hos- pital records after my 2005 assault by a drunken career felon. It's also despite that the asso- ciation's failure to enforce its own CC&Rs caused me to be arrested, injured and incarcerated a week for allegedly shooting a vicious dog that accosted me on my lot. I still face being incar- cerated another seven years for this. The associated delay also caused me to lose lit- igation defending against the hijacking of my company's Internet domain name. Finally, the association placed my home in foreclosure despite that it breached its own bylaws indebting every member 40 years and increasing their fees 29% to replace a bridge benefitting only a few. It's fascinating how even the little Rancho Tehama Associa- tion mimics larger governments in manipulating rules to effect disproportionate benefits to elites. Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Your Turn