I usually limit opinions on issues to comments when other posters have posted, but this thought struck me while reading the interesting debates about unions (Kudos to Bearing Drift, writers and readers).
One point that struck me was how people were taking sides for what mostly are unions for government employees. And one point I believe is missing:
We ARE management.
When government workers demand increased salaries, benefits, retirement pensions, disability, vacations to the moon, holidays every third Wednesday and contracts that limit their work to half a year, guess who they are demanding to pay for it.
Us!
We’re writing the checks, folks. Government isn’t. Governors don’t. We’ve given them authority to negotiate for us, but it’s still us paying the bill.
It’s completely contradictory for taxpayers to be pro-union in the public sector. By definition, we are completely, 100% management.
So, while we may be sympathetic to issues raised by union organizers, and work to find compromises where we can, the economic lines couldn’t be clearer.
Government employees work for us.
And while the private sector gets social security that kicks in at a higher and higher age, if at all, and the private sector at most offers 401Ks to most employees requiring contributions and health care that most employees have to contribute anywhere from a third or a half of the premiums, the public sector unions fight for pensions that make our benefits pale.
While government employees look for retirement after 20 years, the average private sector employee has 11 different employers by the age of 44 and 68% of jobs after this point last less than five years (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
We’re talking about government unions demanding financial packages that an overwhelming majority of those in management (taxpayers) do not and will not have.
That’s the friction that issues like this are causing.
Decades ago, when issues were limiting the workweek, ending sweatshop wages, and increasing occupational safety, perhaps a more sympathetic case could be made.
Government unions demanding pensions while taxpayers get an insolvent social security system isn’t exactly matching those early struggles of union organization.
Teachers whining about not getting a raise should try walking a mile in our private sector shoes for a bit. While they are not getting raises, we the taxpayers have seen our jobs disappear completely.
And when more taxpayers realize that they are management, and every union concession that government employees demand is coming out of our pockets, the days of public sector unions will be numbered.
