We need to be smart about regulating the labour market: individual rights rather than collective bargaining need to be the way forward

Abstract

This month saw the recent announcement by unions of a new wave of public sector strikes planned for November over public sector pension plans. Alan Manning argues that unions have become an increasingly problematic way to deliver the progressive agenda, as they tend to be composed of those who deliver public services rather than those who receive them. Smarter labour market regulation, aimed at the redistribution of wealth, may be a better outcome than enhancing the power of the unions