The union effort to restrict competition

The Boston Globe reports:

The Federal Probe into Boston-area union tactics has generated huge interest because it has embroiled Mayor Marty Walsh in questions about the methods he, as a one-time labor leader, used to push developers to hire union contractors.

But it also helps illustrate the multi-layered effort unions have long made to exclude or limit nonunion competition in this state. Economics are at the root of that effort. Union work usually costs more than nonunion work, in part because union wages are above the nonunion market rate, in part because of union work-jurisdiction rules.

Union members, of course, see their wage rates as the appropriate level of pay. But most workers are not in unions — and many are willing to work for less. Now, before everyone commences a well-rehearsed chorus of “race to the bottom,” a basic point: The jobs we’re talking about here aren’t barely-above-minimum-wage employment. No indeed. The average annual pay for some skilled trades — say, a plumber, steelworker, or mason — is higher than the state’s median household income, a measure that can include the earnings of several different people.

The rent-seeking society in action.