In recent years, unions have begun to include in their demands at the

Question

In recent years, unions have begun to include in their demands at the collective bargaining table requests for contract provisions, which give labor an active voice in determining the goals of a corporation. Although it cannot be denied that labor leaders are highly skilled administrators, it must be recognized that their primary loyalty is and must remain to their membership, not to the corporation. Thus, labor participation in corporate management decisions makes about as much sense as __________.

The author’s reasoning leads to the further conclusion that

(A) the authority of corporate managers would be symbolically undermined if labor leaders were allowed to participate in corporate planning

(B) workers have virtually no idea of how to run a large corporation

(C) workers would not derive any benefit from hearing the goals of corporate management explained to them at semiannual meetings

(D) the efficiency of workers would be lowered if they were to divide their time between production line duties and management responsibilities

(E) allowing labor a voice in corporate decisions would involve labor representatives in a conflict of interest

Source:  Master GMAT

IanStewart · Answer

Baffling question - why does the stem end in a fill-in-the-blank that has nothing to do with the question we're meant to answer? It's like they didn't finish writing the question.

Anyway, this is presented as an inference question, but the correct answer, E, is not a valid inference based only on the information in the stem. We're told union leaders have a responsibility to workers, so if they're involved in corporate decisionmaking, then they will have a conflict of interest *if* the goals of workers conflict with the goals of the corporation. But that's a required assumption if E is to be a valid inference, and nowhere does the passage tell us whether worker goals and corporate goals conflict. You can't make assumptions in inference questions, even assumptions that might seem reasonable to many people. So not only is the writing problematic, but the logic is as well, and I don't think this question deserves study.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

The author’s reason for rejecting the notion of labor participation in management decisions is that the labor leaders first have a responsibility to the people they represent and that the responsibility would color their thinking about the needs of the corporation. This thinking is reflected in the adage: No man can serve two masters.

(B)  is incorrect, for the author is referring to the labor leaders, not the rank-and-file; and it is specifically mentioned that the leaders are skilled administrators.

(D)  is incorrect because it, too, fails to respect the distinction between union leader and union member.

(A)  is a distraction. The notion that the authority would be  “symbolically undermined”  is edifying but finds no support in the paragraph. In any event, it entirely misses the main point of the paragraph as we have explained it.

(C)  also fails to observe the distinction between leader and worker, not to mention also that it is only remotely connected with the discussion.

The correct answer is (E).

In recent years, unions have begun to include in their demands at the

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