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CONTRACT

A contract is an agreement between an individual worker and an employer. The worker contributes labor in exchange for payment (and, in many cases, for benefits such as health insurance). The worker’s labor generates a surplus, which contributes to the employer’s profits.

WORKFORCE

If workers disapprove of their contract terms, they are free to withhold their labor and ask for better terms. But in a large workforce, an employer can simply fire that worker without their overall profits being threatened.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

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A labor union is an institution that allows a whole workforce to collectively bargain for a contract that covers all workers.

STRIKE

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Workers coordinate their demands to gain leverage—if the entire workforce were to strike, the employer would be unable to generate a profit. The philosophical premise of a strike is that employers will not freely offer their workers better pay, benefits, or labor conditions. Employers typically respond to the bottom line, and a strike attempts to make higher pay the least expensive option, compared to a total work stoppage.

This process has been settled law in the U.S. since the 1935 National Labor Relations Act established workers’ rights to join unions and collectively bargain. However, public-sector labor unions don’t have this ability—and some of them are right here in Charlottesville.

PUBLIC GOOD

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In the private sector, workers generate a surplus that produces a profit. In the public sector, workers generate a public good.

You probably enjoy public goods every day. Ideally, public universities, like UVA, do not exist in order to generate a profit, but to provide an education and to produce knowledge for our collective benefit. Public transportation allows people to travel at low or no cost. Fire departments, public parks, and toll-free roads are a few more examples of socialized institutions: by distributing the cost of these goods to citizens via taxes, we ensure that they are available for all.