Neoliberal union critique reframed labor organization as monopoly power backed by coercion.

Evidence

In 1947, Machlup and Watts’s nascent position reflected the first halting steps of a neoliberal literature on unions toward the position that analyzed them in terms of monopoly power and delegitimated this labor monopoly power because it was established by legalized coercion. This important literature emerged in the 1950s, almost all of which was connected with the MPS or its Volker-funded affiliate, the FEE. This literature appeared as the counterpart in economics of the concurrent political assault on American unions and those in business or in government that supported them. For example, these works promoted an extremely critical stance on the national wage-bargaining process, arguing that this machinery was just an attempt from unions combined with compromised employers to manipulate prices to the detriment of consumer sovereignty. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 971

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to later chapters detailing how this anti-union framing shaped US labor policy in the Reagan era. — connects to: Neoliberalism reframed democracy and unions as enemies of market truth. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 123; French trade union leaders joined neoliberal circles to fight communist influence — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 282; Neoliberals favored friendly unions but strictly limited their power over investment decisions — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 965 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal ideas reframed anti-union business positions as good judgment rather than reactionary politics #corroborates (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1474
• Early neoliberals proposed abolishing core labor law to curb union power. #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 975
• Neoliberalism redefines coercion so that no market exchange can ever count as coercive #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 167
• Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2130