It’s not that taxpayers want to pay public sector employees little money with no benefits. It’s that taxpayers are sick of paying excessive salaries and benefits to public sector employees and getting little in return but higher taxes and inefficient services. Most taxpayers have never read a union contract but they should. Every taxpayer needs to know what they are paying for when unions represent public sector employees. They certainly do not represent the taxpayers who are footing the bill.
Public Sector unions spend millions of dollars to elect Democrats who then in turn ‘collectively bargain’ with them for wage increases and benefits. It’s not the politicians’ money so they don’t care how they spend it nor do they care that creating the unsustainable benefits of public unions will directly harm taxpayers and residents of any given state.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt -
“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.”
George Meany (former President of the AFL-CIO) -
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”
Stephen Bainbridge -
“A core problem with public sector unionism is that it creates a uniquely powerful interest group. In theory, bureaucrats are supposed to work for and be accountable to the elected representatives of the people. But suppose those bureaucrats organize into large, well-funded, powerful unions that can tip election results. With very few and very unique exceptions, no workplace in which the employees elect the supervisors functions well for long…
In effect, public sector unionism thus means that representatives of the union will often be on both sides of the collective bargaining table. On the one side, the de jure union leaders. On the other side, the bought and paid for politicians. No wonder public sector union wages and benefits are breaking the back of state budgets. They are bargaining with themselves rather than with an arms’-length opponent.”
Jonah Goldberg -
“Government workers were making good salaries in 1962 when President Kennedy lifted, by executive order (so much for democracy), the federal ban on government unions. Civil-service regulations and similar laws had guaranteed good working conditions for generations.
The argument for public unionization wasn’t moral, economic, or intellectual. It was rankly political.”
Daniel Disalvo -
“Since the middle of the 20th century, organized labor in America has undergone two transformations with major implications for the nation’s politics. The first is the dramatic decline in overall union membership. In 1955, organized labor represented one-third of the non-agricultural work force; today, it represents just 12.3%. The second transformation, however, is even more significant: the change in the composition of the unionized work force.
As private-sector unions have withered, public-sector unions have grown dramatically. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2009, for the first time ever, more public-sector employees (7.9 million) than private-sector employees (7.4 million) belonged to unions. Today, unionized workers are more likely to be teachers, librarians, trash collectors, policemen, or firefighters than they are to be carpenters, electricians, plumbers, auto workers, or coal miners.”
The Trouble with Public Sector Unions
“…public-sector unions enjoy a privileged position in relation not only to their private-sector counterparts but also to other interest groups. Public-sector unions have automatic access to politicians through the collective-bargaining process, while other interest groups must fight for such entrée. Government unions can also more easily mobilize their members for electoral participation than other interest groups can — since they are able to apply pressure at the workplace and, in many cases, can even arrange for time off and other benefits to make members’ political activism easier. Furthermore, most interest groups must devote a great deal of time and effort to fundraising; public-sector unions, on the other hand, enjoy a steady, reliable revenue stream, as union dues are deducted directly from members’ paychecks (often by government, which drastically reduces the unions’ administrative costs).”
America’s Public Sector Union Dilemma
“Unionization is much higher in the public sector than in the private sector, and there has been no tendency for unionization to decline in the public sector. While private sector unionization has declined from about 37 percent to about 6 percent, unionization in local government has been steady at around 45 percent.
Public sector unions have been able to thrive because of the very limited competition in state and local governments. This has allowed unions to increase wages above competitive levels. In particular, state and local government compensation has increased by about 40 percent since 1980, compared to about a 20 percent increase in the private sector. The average public sector compensation level is now $70,000, compared to an average of $60,000 in the private sector.”
Analysis: The Public Employee Union Problem
“A conflict of interest would be as follows: First, government union elects politician by funding their campaign and organizing a massive get-out-the-vote drive; second, politician supports employee pay increases, generous pensions and condition of employment; third, union takes dues (read: taxpayer money) and starts the cycle all over again for selected politician.
At both the state and national level, public-sector union support for many Democrats has been well documented. One of the largest public sector unions in the country, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has given over $40 million to politicians since 1990; with more than 98 percent of that going to Democrats. The SEIU, AFL-CIO and United Steel Workers have all promised big help in the coming election. In return, the Democratic Party has voted nearly lockstep with these union’s demands.”
Unions Rig the Game – Demcorats Protect the Scam
“This is what funds the Democratic Party — compulsory union dues, mandated by the state, and funneled back into the campaigns of the Democrats who, once elected, will ensure that the racket continues. Put an end to this, and it’s game over for the Democratic Party, which is why Wisconsin Democrats were willing to do anything, even flee the state, to stop any diminution at all of public employee union collective bargaining rights.”
“Representing government employees has changed the union movement’s priorities: Unions now campaign for higher taxes on Americans to fund more government spending. Congress should resist government employee unions’ self-interested calls to raise taxes on workers in the private sector. . .”
Reasons Public School Teachers and Unions are Failing Children and Bankrupting America
“Corruption, greed, incompetence, bureaucratic bungling: Those are the things most likely to be found when the charade of public union outrage is peeled back to reveal the inner workings of collective bargaining. There is no doubt America is engaged in an ideological battle. On one side are the public sector unions and “workers” demanding the taxpayers cough up more to fund their fat paychecks and bloated pensions. On the other side are the majority of Americans who work in the private sector, fund their own retirements and health care, and have no entitlement programs they haven’t designed themselves. The public sector is asking for more blood while the private sector is beaten unconscious and bleeding from every major artery.”
The Outrageous Salaries and Payouts of Public Sector Employees in Massachusetts
“One Turnpike toll collector (yes a toll collector – the person who sits in the booth and takes your money and ticket and may have to give you change) made almost $100,000with overtime in 2008. You read that right. A toll collector collected almost $100,000 in payment with your taxpayer dollars. That is just the salary. The amount does not include benefits or pension. You’ll be paying that insane amount as well.
The toll collector isn’t alone though. A cashier at a Massport garage made almost $100,000 as well in 2011. The person’s base salary is almost $60,000. That works out to be around $28 per hour to sit in a booth and take money from people for parking. Again that amount doesn’t include benefits or pension. It’s not that these people don’t work hard but their jobs are not skilled labor positions nor would they even need a high school degree to perform their jobs. The outrageous pay is thanks to the public sector unions and the Democrats they elect and then ‘collectively bargain’ with for salary and benefits.”
Union organizing exempted from stalking laws in four states
“A new report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlights a striking example of Big Labor’s strength at the local government level: the states of Pennsylvania, California, Illinois and Nevada have all exempted unions from the state’s own anti-stalking laws.
The report, titled Sabotage, Stalking & Stealth Exemptions: Special State Laws for Labor Unions, claimed: “union favoritism under state laws tend to occur in criminal statues and allow individuals who engage in truly objectionable behavior to avoid prosecution solely because they are participating in some form of labor activity.”