LSAT 6-1-1

xinxuan_zhu

LSAT 6-1-1

The Taft-Hartley Act, passed by the United States Congress in 1947, gave states the power to enact “right-to-work” legislation that prohibits union shop (必须加入工会条款) agreements. According to such an agreement, a labor union negotiates wages and working conditions for all workers in a business, and all workers are required to belong to the union. Since 1947, 20 states have adopted right-to-work laws. Much of the literature concerning right-to-work laws implies that such legislation has not actually had a significant impact. This point of view, however, has not gone uncriticized. Thomas V Carroll has proposed that the conclusions drawn by previous researchers are attributable to their myopic focus on the premise that, unless right-to-work laws significantly reduce union membership within a state, they have no effect. Carroll argues that the right-to-work laws “do matter” in that such laws generate differences in real wages across states. Specifically, Carroll indicates that while right-to-work laws may not “destroy” unions by reducing the absolute number of unionized workers, they do impede the spread of unions and thereby reduce wages within right-to-work states. Because the countervailing power of unions is weakened in right-to-work states, manufacturers and their suppliers can act cohesively in competitive labor markers, thus lowering wages in the affected industries.

1.     The reasoning behind the “literature” (line 9), as that reasoning is presented in the passage, is most analogous to the reasoning behind which one of the following situations?

(A) A law is proposed that benefits many but disadvantages a few: those advocating passage of the law argue that the disadvantages to few are not so serious that the benefits should be denied to many.

(B) A new tax on certain categories of consumer items is proposed: those in favor of the tax argue that those affected by the tax are well able to pay it, since the items taxed are luxury items.

(C) A college sets strict course requirements that every student must complete before graduating; students already enrolled argue that it is unfair for the new requirements to apply to those enrolled before the change.

(D) The personnel office of a company designs a promotions become effective on January 1: the managers protest that such a policy means that they cannot respond fast enough to changes in staffing needs.（E）

(E) A fare increase in a public transportation system does not significantly reduce the number of fares sold: the management of the public transportation system asserts, therefore, that the fare hike has had no negative effects.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-2-23 9:45:41编辑过]

xinxuan_zhu

文章好长，但愿各位看了头不痛，我实在觉得答案A是对的，可为什么时E呢？

xinxuan_zhu

搞不懂这片文章的立场，对于“right-to-work” legislation是赞成还是反对呢？

The Taft-Hartley Act, passed by the United States Congress in 1947, gave states the power to enact “right-to-work” legislation that prohibits union shop (必须加入工会条款) agreements. According to such an agreement, a labor union negotiates wages and working conditions for all workers in a business, and all workers are required to belong to the union.从这句话看，它禁止劳工为争取好的工资和劳动条件而协商。而作者是持批评态度的，它并不像literature说的那样没有什么影响，事实上，它对劳工不利，对吗？