SNEK POLICY
Voluntary Employment, Private Enterprise and No Public-Sector Unions
SNEK believes employment should be based on freedom of choice on both sides. Workers have rights, and business owners have rights.
Private employment is voluntary
Workers should be free to choose where they work, what compensation they accept, whether conditions are acceptable, whether they organize, whether they strike, and whether they leave.
Private employers should likewise be free to choose whom they employ, how the company operates, how performance is evaluated, whether to accept collective bargaining demands, and whether to continue an employment relationship.
Workers may organize
Private-sector workers should remain free to organize voluntarily and present collective demands. Freedom of association applies to them too.
But organizing should not give workers ownership rights over the company. SNEK would not require a private employer to accept collective bargaining or surrender management authority.
Strikes and replacements
Workers should be free to strike. Employers should be free to continue operating and replace employees who choose not to work. Both sides make their decision and live with the consequences.
No compulsory union membership or dues
Nobody should be required to join a union, remain in a union, pay union dues, pay agency fees, or finance union political activity as a condition of employment.
Ownership carries authority
Employees have real stakes in their jobs, but employment is not ownership. Owners and investors provide capital, assume financial obligations, absorb losses, and ultimately bear the risk that the enterprise fails. Final control over a privately owned company’s strategy should remain with ownership.
Reward individual performance
Excellent workers should be able to earn more based on skill, productivity, reliability, creativity, responsibility, and value. Seniority alone should not determine economic reward.
Businesses must be able to innovate
American businesses need freedom to adopt new technology, automate, change processes, restructure operations, eliminate obsolete work, and respond quickly to global competition.
No public-sector unions
SNEK does not support unionization or collective bargaining for government employees. Public workers retain ordinary rights of speech, association, assembly, petition, and political participation as citizens, but public employment itself should not be collectively bargained against taxpayers.
Government should instead offer compensation sufficient to recruit and retain capable employees.
The SNEK position
Protect voluntary association and voluntary employment. Allow private workers to organize and strike. Allow private employers to reject collective bargaining and replace striking workers. Ban compulsory dues. Preserve ownership authority. Do not permit public-sector unionization or collective bargaining.
READ THE FULL POLICY
Why SNEK thinks this
SNEK sees employment as a voluntary relationship between workers and owners, with rights on both sides. Workers should be free to organize, bargain, strike, leave, and seek better opportunities. Owners should retain control of a company they built or purchased and should not be forced to surrender management authority to an outside organization.
How it would work
Private-sector workers can voluntarily organize and present collective demands. Employers can choose whether to accept collective bargaining and can continue operating or replace workers who choose to strike. Nobody should be forced to join a union, pay dues, pay agency fees, or finance political activity as a condition of employment. SNEK does not support public-sector unionization or collective bargaining against taxpayers. Government should instead offer compensation competitive enough to recruit capable employees.
Where we’re flexible or still working it out
This position does not deny workers the right to associate, protest, organize, or speak collectively. It rejects compulsory participation and compulsory bargaining. Ordinary labor, safety, discrimination, wage, and contract laws still apply, and SNEK remains open to evidence about specific labor-market failures so long as remedies do not quietly transfer ownership control.