When unions are public sector, YOU are management
By Brian Kirwin | Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 | PolicyI 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.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
Comments
27 Responses to "When unions are public sector, YOU are management"
I would say we are more akin to the shareholders. We hire both the labor and the management, and we have a responsibility to police both. That doesn’t mean reflexively siding with the bureaucrats, especially when they are behaving badly.
I’d point out this isn’t an issue in Virginia… I do not know of any public sector employees collective bargain in the Commonwealth.
BTW: Additionaly, I don’t know anyone in the Public sector (union or not) that retires at twenty years in Virginia. I think you need to re-look at the issue again as you can retire at 50 years old and 30 years of service in public safety but for teachers and all others your in untill your 60 or 65 years old.
Once again, you all should learn about things before you write incorrect info and blog it out… Sorry but the entire issue and subject doesn’t apply to Virginia workers…
William, you’re right in that this issue doesn’t really apply to Virginia. I was talking about the issue in Wisconsin mostly.
Brian, we’re more than shareholders. We are the only source of revenue they have.
But doesn’t the pension and healthcare part of the issue apply to Virginia? I don’t have a warm fuzzy that these are truly under control in Virginia.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bearing Drift, dolswitz. dolswitz said: RT @bearingdrift: Web: When unions are public sector, YOU are management http://bit.ly/fWhgm6 [...]
“When unions are public sector, YOU are management”
But lets remember YOU are the customer too! If YOU want good employees YOU need to provide a quality work place with good salaries, benefits and safe working conditions. When YOU provide those things, YOU will get quality service from quality, highly motivated and professinal employees. But if YOU go cheap bottomline lowest cost, YOU get cheap, lowest quality service in return.
YOU are management but YOU are the customer who needs to understand YOU get what YOU pay for and deserve.
Balance in all things is important! Don’t shoot YOUrselves in the foot… LOL
And on Heathcare and retirement isues in Virginia, you will find only about 4% of Virginia employees are in a union. That leaves 96% that are not in the union. “Union” organization is not really the determining factor in Healthcare or retirement benefits or funding problems in Virginia.
Yes, and part of the reason for that is that cities and counties in Virginia are generally professionally managed by public executives who listen to and respect the opinions and rights of their workers. Stanton, Virginia was the first city in the nation to adopt the city manager/council form of government, but other places were not so progressive.
It’s not a question of where the revenue comes from. It’s about who has control over what these guys get paid and what their work conditions are. The General Assembly isn’t making those decisions. Bureaucrats are. We can’t fire the bureaucrats directly. That’s why they are considered management, not us.
I understand your point, and I think it’s a fair one, but at the same time, it’s an oversimplification to say that there is never going to be a situation where a worker may need a union simply because they work for the government. A janitor is a janitor, whether they’re working for me or for the Commonwealth.
William, we are not the customer.. The state should be the customer to private businesses who can do the job more efficiently. ANY non fire, resuce, police job that can be outsourced should be outsourced at reduced cost. In many cases state run facilities are run incredibly incompetently. In the free market those facilities would be businesses that either fix themselves up of go out of business.. The ones that would otherwise go out of business remain on the dole and suck dollars while getting less or nothing done and we still pay for it.
Can you honestly look at every item you pay for with your taxes and say to yourself geez, that is a great deal.. Glad I spent money an that wasteful program.
What a paradox they argue?
Most people who advocate unions being essential to protect public sector employees from those evil employers, appear to be the same who advocate these same employers have enough scrutiny to tend to everyone’s healthcare. As though the lines of responsibilities end at the beginning of the other.
@Turbo: If your “freemarket run more efficiently or go out of business” theme was true, why is it the government is continuing to cut business tax rates, offering grants/incentives and creating public/private partnerships to “help” business owners? Using your themed approach, the state, city and feds (for that matter) could end all the corporate welfare and private businesses could be successful or fail on their own merits. And I’d acutually support that idea.
However that isn’t taking place in Virginia or across America.
BTW: supporting corporate welfare seems to be the main effort of the current GOP members in Richmond…
Yes, and in Wisconsin as well as Walker has pushed through tax breaks for corporations. Give all the tax money to wealthy multinational corporations and then plead poverty. Works every time.
Like handing money to people who build buildings near the oceanfront?
The more attention this issue receives herein, and in blogs and other media around the country, the better it is for those who have been cowed into silence as the tyranny of the majority manifests itself around this nation. How the right can now say the last election was about abortion, unions, and deficits is a simple indication that now that they have power, they intend to push through their radical social agenda and their further protections of the rich and wealthy. We’ll see how that plays out.
Nice chart with this. Notice how the decline in the percentage of union workers in the workforce pretty much exactly coincides with the decline of the American middle class.
Hey Mike, howl if the labor union members organizing at Runnymede corp cheer a work stoppage in protest over $300 healthcare premiums.
Mike,
Don’t you ever get tired of channeling Keith Olbermann with platitudes and slogans instead of facts?
“…those who have been cowed into silence as the tyranny of the majority manifests itself around this nation.”
Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds when Olbermann says it? Believe me, it doesn’t sound any more intelligent when you write it.
SV,
Sorry, but the “decline of the middle class” is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked. Look it up on the US Census Bureau site. What matches the chart, above, is the rate of decline of the average household size in this country, from 3.3 in 1970 to about 2.5 today. Over the same period of time, the median household income has increased from about $38,000 to $55,000, adjusted for inflation. Household income peaked in 2007, slumped during the recession, and is now recovering towards the 2007 peak. It is important to understand the difference between the median income and mean income. The latter can be artificially high if wealth is concentrated at the top. The median proves that income growth is evenly distributed.
“The decline of the Middle Class” is a canard that justifies a host of liberal initiatives. It holds that greedy, multi-national corporations have sent all good-paying jobs overseas, eliminating the manufacturing sector in this country. Therefore, corporations need more government regulation, need to be taxed more, and generally are at fault for any and all economic woe in this country. It holds that government can create wealth by redistributing it more efficiently than private enterprise. It holds that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the middle class, therefore taxation needs to be more progressive so that the wealthy can “pay their fair share.” And it simply does not stand up to scrutiny when you look at the facts.
“Don’t you ever get tired of channeling Keith Olbermann with platitudes and slogans instead of facts?
“…those who have been cowed into silence as the tyranny of the majority manifests itself around this nation.”
@HisRoc let’s celebrate the admission that the Left according to Mike Barrett is Not the majority. Ergo leftists must support the tyranny of the Minority. Also its not fair hitting a leftist below the belt with cruel facts.
Val,
Actually, it is worse than you describe. Liberals believe that they are a minority because only the really, really smart people are liberals. The vast majority of American voters, they believe, are ignorant mouth-breathers who get all their news from Fox and have their opinions formulated for them by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Therefore, it is the sad burden of the liberals to do what is best for the stupid American citizens even if they don’t know what is good for them. Of course, since the majority of voters are inordinately influenced by the hyperbole of Fox, et al, then it only makes sense to invent liberal canards that justify what the enlightened few know is really best for all of us.
Such arrogance.
Kirwin, your last line is the BEST line of the day – so true! Taxpayers woke up (and started paying attention) when the health care bill went down. We’re broke and scrambling and as details of ‘the deals’ come to light, we see quite clearly our legislatures haven’t been taking care of us; they’ve used state (and federal) coffers & credit lines to shore up voting blocks. Public unions overreached and taxpayers are in the midst of another WTF moment. The media is forced to cover the story, and this governor appears to have what it takes to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Finally!!
His Roc,
So there is no decline of the middle class and you have the figures to prove it. How about these figures.
I bought a house in 1965 for $28,000 and sold it in 1990 for $120,000. I bought a new car in 1070 for $3,000 I bought a used 2008 big car in 2010 for $18,000. What you left out was inflation and this inflation has out stripped real workers pay and that is where the middle class decline has occured.
Louis,
Go back and read my post. The median income figures that I cited are adjusted for inflation, as I clearly stated. Look it up; by all means don’t take my word for it.
You really need to work on your reading comprehension skills. That might be the primary reason why your income is declining.
HISROC,
What a revealing interchange with Mr Stadlin. Did he go back and look up other government reports to try to refute you? No way! He lazily came up with a dumb personal anecdote. Leftists 40 or 50 years ago at least showed that they had read some books and thought about them. The reason for the difference with today’s leftists is simple. They are now reactionaries, blindly defending an old corrupt order.
I was amazed that he bought a new car in 1070.
Maybe from William the Conqueror.
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