A Conscious Conservative Solution to Workers' Rights

  A corporation is not a creation of the market.  It is a collectivist creation of the government.  Individual states allow groups to create corporations and provide special protection to  members of those groups (look here for information on those protections, C Corporation: A Definition).  Over time, the states have competed with each other as to how many protections they offer, with Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware leading the way.  For example, even though General Motors has traditionally had it's corporate headquarters and most of it's operations in Michigan, it is officially a corporation protected by Delaware.  Why?  Because Delaware offers more protection and lower taxes than Michigan.  

By creating what is known as a "corporate veil" (What is corporate veil? definition and meaning) in legal terms, the principle decision makers of a corporation are protected financially and sometimes have limited criminal liability for their actions.  Even the CEO is merely an employee of the business.  An example of this is the recent meltdown of the banking industry.  None of the executives of the large banks lost their personal fortunes.  They were protected by the "corporate veil."  The banks were owned by individuals (sole proprietorship) or a group (partnership), the owners would have lost  their personal fortunes and could have been sued personally.  They might have even faced criminal prosecution.  Do you think they might have made different decisions if that was the case?

Back to the relationship with workers.  If the owner of a business does not have corporate protection, they become personally responsible for how an employee is treated.  If an employee was abused, the owner(s) would be held directly responsible, civilly and/or criminally.  If nothing else, the employee can leave and go work for somebody else.  Although there is a disagreement as to how big, there is agreement that companies cannot get megalithic without government protection and support.    

The combination of the lack of government protection for employers and the increased competition for labor from more numerous smaller companies should be more than adequate to protect individual laborers.