[jorams]

> How do you deal with the fact that there are people willing to work for less?

The answer in the Netherlands is that for most industries that have one the collective agreement has been declared universally binding. It applies to everyone in that industry, whether they're a member of one of the bargaining organizations or not, and if a company ignores it they're breaking the law.

[VoxPelli]

Same here in Sweden - when a company doesn’t have a collective agreement they also don’t have a right to have peace with the unions, so then the unions can put pressure on them to get a collective agreement and when that succeeds there will be a collective agreement that then apply to all employees

[VirusNewbie]

My point is you have a societal issue if you have thousands of workers migrating who are looking to work and willing to work for less. You can either choose to house and feed them and prevent them from working, or you can realize labor is cheaper.

[VoxPelli]

We have no such race to the bottom here in Sweden

[VirusNewbie]

Interesting. Are refugees or illegal immigrants allowed to work? Do they get social services? Would they work if they could?

[victorbjorklund]

Only 60% of people age 20-65 who arrived as refugees participate in the labour market (40% doesnt). And of those 60% many work part-time or in government pretend jobs (that are created to hide unemployment).

[VoxPelli]

Unions ensure that workers are not pitted against one another

The one race to the bottom is workers from other countries within the European Union as the free market and movement within EU complicates things then.