Why don’t we get more real news about labor and workplace issues?
“The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily…and in all disputes…can hold out much longer. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit but constant and uniform combination not to raise wages above their actual [natural] rate…[and upon occasion] even below this rate…
We seldom, indeed, hear of this combination because it is the usual…natural state of things… These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy till the moment of execution, and when the workmen yield, as they sometimes do, without resistance…
They [employer efforts to reduce wages] are never heard of by the people…Such combinations, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary combination of workmen…
But whether [the workers’] combination be offensive or defensive, they are always abundantly heard of.”
The Wealth of Nations