My personal opinion is that unions have long outlived their usefulness. Nowhere is it more obvious than in the case of the unionization of government workers. The Wall Street Journal reports:
A study in 2005 by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated that the average public-sector worker earned 46% more in salary and benefits than comparable private-sector workers. The gap has only continued to grow. For example, state and local worker pay and benefits rose 3.1% in the last year, compared to 1.9% in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
But the real power of the public sector is showing through in this economic crisis. Some five million private-sector workers have lost their jobs in the last year alone, and their unemployment rate is above 9% according to the BLS. By contrast, public-sector employment has grown in virtually every month of the recession, and the jobless rate for government workers is a mere 2.8%. For anyone who thinks such low unemployment numbers are good news, remember that the bulging public sector must be paid for with revenues that most governments don’t currently have.
Must I type really it out loud? These “public sector” worker are government workers and are paid by our hard-earned tax dollars. And no matter how dire the straights in which we find ourselves, their unions continue to demand higher pay and more benefits, despite the fact many are already protected by civil service laws. The net result is higher taxes, of course, as President Obama increases the budgets of unionized agencies, and Labor Secretary Solis tells unionized government workers to push their Congress critters to pass the EFCA:
The way to “put trust and faith” back into a system of employer-employee relations that has for years favored management “is by making sure we pass EFCA,” Solis told some 700 AFSCME leaders and activists. “So when you go home, make sure you call your legislators and you tell them they will be doing the right thing to allow people to associate” by forming a union.
She declared the Obama administration will hire more people in the Labor Department to make sure “all our laws are respected and enforced.”
“So I’m telling you,” Solis added, “there is a new sheriff in town – a sheriff who cares about working-class people, brings respect back into the workplace and allows more people to associate with unions if they want to collectively bargain. I’m talking about EFCA. I’m talking about the opportunities for that bill to pass. And I’m talking about the means for us to strengthen our unions.”
And this, boys and girls, is yet another step down that yellow brick road to fascism.