A UBI will not harm labor unions – workers who face income insecurity are vulnerable to exploitation – a basic income makes collective action more credible.

Criticism 4 - UBI undermines the workers In this discussion there was only a cursory mention of another important criticism of UBI, one that often comes from the Left: UBI will undermine the power of organised labour. It this were true this would be an important criticism. For we know that weaker trade unionism is correlated with growing social injustice and inequality. However, as the benefit system has become more vicious, more controlling and less like UBI, we have certainly seen no increase in union power. So again, the empirical evidence for Coote’s argument seems poor. Moreover, conceptually, it is surprising to see UBI presented as a threat to the trade union movement. Marx rightly observed that current labour markets are inherently unfair because people need money to survive and so can effectively be forced into work at almost any price. Exploitation feeds on the fear of poverty and starvation. In theory UBI should increase the supply of people into the labour market, but it should also radically reduce the ‘elasticity of supply’ or in other words: more people will want to work, but they will be pickier about what work they will do and at what price. So there is nothing inherently threatening to the trade union movement about UBI. Quite the opposite - there will be more people who will benefit from collective action, support and representation. And these people will be much better able to exercise their power by withholding their labour, without fear of poverty or starvation.