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Comment by ronjakoi | Hacker News Reader

I can assure you, shipyards here in Finland are just as, if not more, unionized.

This is a common communication problem between Americans and Europeans where we're using the same word to mean two different types of organization. In the US you should replace "union" with "cartel, likely criminal" eg the boilermakers

"A federal grand jury in Kansas returned an indictment yesterday charging seven defendants, including five current and former high-level officers of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmith, Forgers and Helpers (Boilermakers Union) for their alleged roles in a 15-year, $20 million embezzlement scheme."

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-former-presidents-boilerm...

Maybe the problem isn't with American unions, it's with American corruption.

In other words maybe there's just less corruption in Finland.

$20M is small potatoes for a $300M ship that's now costing in the billions.

I would guess the shipbuilding industry in Finland is also built on subsidy and "protectionism" just like every other successful industry too. A cursory google search shows millions that were made available to shipbuilders: https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/serv...

I'd bet that's just scratching the surface. The only way any country has been able to develop their productive capacities is through public grants and subsidies. The history of US industry shows the same thing, research in materials, electronics, the internet, etc were all accomplished through publicly funded research.

It seems quite likely that Finish unions work differently to US ones. The legal details and organisational traditions matter.

It's just free markets in action. Finland is a small country that depends on international trade. Industries must remain competitive or go out of business. Unions that harm the competitiveness too much won't survive in the long term.

US domestic market is much larger. Uncompetitive industries can survive on domestic demand. Especially with some regulations that help. It doesn't even have to be explicitly protectionist regulation. Just regulate things the way Americans consider the best, instead of adopting international standards. That can create sufficient barriers to entry to allow uncompetitive industries and uncooperative unions survive.

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