If we created workers guilds for every industry we’d be a workers and middle class paradise that the boomers could only have dreamed of during the 40 years between FDR and Ronald Rump.
-
Monopolization of labor- The guild would control the supply of workers for the specific industry that means they could determine how many are needed and train/certify accordingly to keep wages high.
-
Standardized Training- If guilds controlled industries they would be able to require a training academy that prospects must pass before becoming a member of the guild this makes sure that everyone is at a high standard and that the standard is equal. Keeping pay high.
-
Guaranteed Decent Wages- It goes without saying if Bob wants to start a business but needs to get employees from the guild they will pay what the guild demands they pay since they won’t have a business otherwise.
-
Guaranteed Pension Plan- With 100s of thousands or millions of people in the same guild they could simply require the employer put 5% of the pay into a savings account that gets interest and after 20 or 25 years working in the industry you will be paid by the guild for the rest of your life, and the interest will be more than the payments, this would also open up the job market for young adults who would be seeing people leave the work force in their 40s.
-
Defacto End to At Will Firing This one is simple, the business would be required to sign a contract where they would be required to prove the employee broke a rule in arbitration which the guilds would pay for that would give us defacto employment court just like eviction court.
Guilds are the key to Utopia
And how do you propose that we fund these hypothetical guilds? I’m not trying to be sarcastic. But it sounds to me like the idea for attaining the funding will be to have the members that have no guarantees and ability to make the funding to pay for the initial startup. I’m not saying this is impossible, but I am saying that this requires a large critical mass of people to form and organize voluntarily and work for possibly multiple years to bring this together before anyone can see a single red cent of benefit. This is rather hard in today’s society. It is even harder with modern remote work. To me, it seems that most unions died with globalization as the workforce was spread out and decentralized and disinvested making it harder to work together for a common goal.
Easy workers in say UAW use their union money to build an academy. It would slowly move from unions to guilds as the money pooling is the same
You’re just describing a strong union.
